Quantitative clinical neurological testing—II: Some statistical considerations of a battery of tests

Abstract

A battery of clinical neurological tests was evaluated statistically. In one experiment eight medical students were studied to obtain information on the reproducibility of four observers, eight repeated examinations, and four time periods of day. To obtain learning and fatigue effects another experiment using ten medical students was carried out. The results from this study for these particular groups indicate: 1. 1. That different examiners, such as neurologists and physical therapists, may be trained to obtain comparable results using the quantitative tests of the battery of clinical neurological tests. 2. 2. That the level of neurological function obtained using these neurological tests does not vary significantly during the four stated periods of the day. 3. 3. That the level of neurological function does not differ significantly when the battery of neurological tests was administered on four consecutive days. 4. 4. It is doubtful that a significant learning trend exists when these neurological tests are administered on four consecutive days. 5. 5. That the weekly means of most of the neurological tests which involve many repetitions of the same action at each examination are significantly larger for the second week. 6. 6. The neurological tests of five repeated trials, e.g., gap strength, and the tests of four reduced trials, e.g., speed of hand, may be used as useful measures of two types of fatigue.