Abstract
Research on the lateralizing value of neuropsychological tests is limited among Latino people with epilepsy (PWE). This study aims to evaluate the utility of two confrontation naming measures in laterality determination. Data were collected from 71 Latino PWE who completed the Vocabulario Sobre Dibujos (VSD) and the Pontón-Satz Modified Boston Naming Test (MBNT). Raw and standardized scores were examined to determine diagnostic accuracy for predicting left hemisphere (LH) epilepsy for the full sample and using a sample-specific median split of educational attainment. The MBNT demonstrated adequate classification accuracy (65.7%, 77.1%) as did the VSD (54.3%, 74.3%) for predicting LH seizure laterality using raw and standardized scores, respectively. For participants with ≥ 9 years of education (HEdu), receiver operator characteristic curve analyses showed a raw/percentile cutoff of ≤ 26/≤ 5th on the VSD, yielding 53%-58% sensitivity/87%-83% specificity. A raw score cutoff of ≤ 17 on MBNT produced 47% sensitivity/78% specificity for HEdu participants. The VSD was found to have greater flexibility in determining cutoff scores using either raw or standardized scores for predicting seizure laterality. This study provides interpretation guidance, emphasizing education as a pertinent variable, to optimize lateralization accuracy for Latino PWE.
Highlights
The incidence of epilepsy in Hispanics is double than that of non-Hispanics in the United States (Berg et al, 2003)
Independent t tests indicated that, using raw scores, left hemisphere (LH) onset groups performed worse than right hemisphere (RH) onset groups on both naming tests
Because percentiles produced better classification accuracy (77.1% for the Modified Boston Naming Test (MBNT) and 74.3% for the Vocabulario Sobre Dibujos (VSD)), all four models were further examined with the hypothesis that years of education was interacting with the model
Summary
The incidence of epilepsy in Hispanics is double than that of non-Hispanics in the United States (Berg et al, 2003). Few studies have investigated the lateralizing value of the NeSBHIS, including the MBNT, among Spanish-speakers in the United States. Lancman, Vazquez-Casals, Perrine, Feoli, and Myers (2012) evaluated the lateralizing merits of the core NeSBHIS battery and select subtests of the Batería III Woodcock-Munoz (Munoz-Sandoval, Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2005) in a sample of 39 Latino PWE. Findings were such that confrontation naming emerged from their battery as clinically useful in lateralization, with 80% sensitivity and 67% specificity for predicting left hemisphere (LH) seizure onset (Lancman et al, 2012). We examined the comparative efficacy of raw scores and educationally adjusted scores in promoting accuracy in laterality determination
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