Brief Cognitive Assessment Tool in MS Good for Everyday Use

Stuart SchlossmanMultiple Sclerosis, Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Symptoms

The Brief International Cognitive Assessment for Multiple Sclerosis (BICAMS) is a effective tool in everyday clinical practice for the identification of cognitive impairment (CI) in patients with MS, an Italian study has confirmed.

The study also highlighted the good psychometric properties of the symbol digit modalities test (SDMT), Maria P. Amato, MD, of the University of Florence, Italy, 

and colleagues reported online in BMC Neurology.

“It seems important to stress that, in optimal clinical conditions, where a neuropsychologist can take care of the cognitive assessment, it is preferable to 

achieve a more thorough cognitive evaluation using tools including 
neuropsychological tests that investigate several cognitive domains impaired in MS,” said the investigators. “The implementation of BICAMS is still in its infancy,” they noted.

The study showed that when BICAMS was compared with other commonly used neuropsychological batteries used in MS, such as the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB), neither BICAMS nor BRB were equivalent to SDMT in the assessment of CI in MS. This is in keeping with the recent literature, pointed out the investigators.

“On the basis of our results, the agreement between the BICAMS and the BRB is fair 

to moderate and mainly dependent on the inclusion of the SDMT, which is the only common test between the two batteries,” they reported. “We can hypothesize that 
the BICAMS and the BRB cannot be considered as equivalent in the assessment of CI
in MS.”

.===================================
Visit our MS Learning Channel on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/msviewsandnews