Chemotherapeutic drug-specific alteration of microvascular blood flow in murine breast cancer as measured by diffuse correlation spectroscopy.

The non-invasive, measurement of microvascular blood flow has the potential to enhance breast cancer therapy monitoring. Here, longitudinal blood flow of 4T1 murine breast cancer (N=125) under chemotherapy was quantified with diffuse correlation spectroscopy based on layer models. Six different treatment regimens involving doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel at clinically relevant doses were investigated.

Base rate comparison of suboptimal scores on the RBANS effort scale and effort index in Parkinson's disease.

Objective: The effort index (EI) and the effort scale are commonly used embedded effort indicators on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). This investigation examined the rates of suboptimal scores on the EI and effort scale in a Parkinson's disease (PD) sample.

Method: One hundred and sixty-three participants who have been diagnosed with PD by a board-certified neurologist were included in the study.

Simulating high frequency water quality monitoring data using a catchment runoff attenuation flux tool (CRAFT).

High resolution water quality data has recently become widely available from numerous catchment based monitoring schemes. However, the models that can reproduce time series of concentrations or fluxes have not kept pace with the advances in monitoring data. Model performance at predicting phosphorus (P) and sediment concentrations has frequently been poor with models not fit for purpose except for predicting annual losses.

Criterion Validity of the WAIS-IV Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI).

Objective: The current study sought to validate the Cognitive Proficiency Index (CPI) against similar, well-established measures of attention and processing speed. Additionally, the sensitivity of the CPI and Attention Index of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) and their ability to differentiate among clinical groups were compared.

Method: The first objective was accomplished by calculating correlation coefficients between the CPI and similar attention and processing speed measures.

Improving the diagnostic accuracy of the RBANS in mild cognitive impairment with construct-consistent measures.

Research on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) has suggested that it has somewhat limited sensitivity in the differentiation of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) from patients with dementia and elderly patients with no neurologic or psychiatric diagnoses. This study sought to increase the diagnostic utility of the RBANS in differentiating between patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), MCI, and no diagnosis (ND) with the addition of construct comparable neuropsychological test measures. Diagnostic utility was assessed by comparing patients diagnosed with MCI to patients diagnosed with AD as well as to the ND group.

A pseudoisochromatic test of color vision for human infants.

Despite the development of experimental methods capable of measuring early human color vision, we still lack a procedure comparable to those used to diagnose the well-identified congenital and acquired color vision anomalies in older children, adults, and clinical patients. In this study, we modified a pseudoisochromatic test to make it more suitable for young infants. Using a forced choice preferential looking procedure, 216 3-to-23-mo-old babies were tested with pseudoisochromatic targets that fell on either a red/green or a blue/yellow dichromatic confusion axis.

Longitudinal stability of RBANS profiles in a geriatric community-dwelling sample.

This investigation is an extension of a previous study that identified four neurocognitive RBANS groups via cluster analysis in a geriatric community-dwelling sample of 699 individuals who were at least 65 years of age. Groups were examined longitudinally over a 2-year interval to establish if they exhibited marked score changes over three assessment periods. Dropout rates, onset of medical pathology, and self-reported functioning were tracked at each evaluation.

RBANS cluster profiles in a geriatric community-dwelling sample.

Neuropsychological heterogeneity is prevalent in geriatric individuals and is due to a number of factors including the onset of neuropathology, increased risk of emotional complications, and normal cognitive changes associated with aging. In order to better characterize normal neurocognitive variability in this population, cluster analysis was used on a sample of 699 community-dwelling geriatric patients who completed The Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS). Three-, four-, five-, and six-cluster solutions were examined and based on a number of criteria, the four-cluster solution was selected for further analysis.

Comparison of Patti Pics and Lea Symbols optotypes in children and adults.

Purpose: Although a great variety of pediatric tests of visual acuity exist, few have been compared directly within the same patients or have been evaluated directly against an adult gold standard.

Methods: Right eyes from 80 3- to 5-year-old preschoolers were tested at 3 m with the two current pediatric optotype tests-the Patti Pics and the Lea Symbols (Mass VAT versions)-that best adhere to the international standard for early eye and vision screening. For comparison, right eyes from 52 adults were tested under the same conditions with both pediatric tests and with a gold standard Mass VAT Sloan letter test.

Efficacy of the ANAM General Neuropsychological Screening Battery (ANAM GNS) for detecting neurocognitive impairment in a mixed clinical sample.

The Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics (ANAM) is a computerized neuropsychological assessment battery that has demonstrated utility in a variety of clinical populations including multiple sclerosis, systemic lupus erythematosus, Parkinson's disease, acquired brain injury, migraine headaches, and Alzheimer's disease. This study utilized selected tests from the ANAM General Neuropsychological Screening Battery (ANAM GNS), a newly defined subset of tests from the broader ANAM library designed for general clinical assessment of cognition. ANAM GNS is an expansion of the ANAM Core battery which has been utilized in a military setting.

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder show an amblyopia-like pattern of vision deficit.

Aim: The aim of the study was to assess and characterize visual functioning in children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) using a broader and more inclusive range of measures than has been reported previously.

Method: Standard tests of visual functioning were used to assess 21 children (11 females, 10 males) with FASD and 21 sex- and age-matched comparison children without FASD. The age of the children ranged from 6 years 9 months to 11 years 11 months (mean 9y 6mo).

Brief report: the temporal stability of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status Effort Index in geriatric samples.

The Effort Index (EI) of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) was developed to identify inadequate effort. Although researchers have examined its validity, the reliability of the EI has not been evaluated. The current study examined the temporal stability of the EI across 1 year in two independent samples of older adults.

Intersubtest discrepancies on the RBANS: results from the OKLAHOMA study.

The present study provides supplemental data for the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (Randolph, 1998) by reporting base rate data on discrepancies between subtests of this measure. These discrepancies are organized by general level of ability and include both age and education corrections. The data come from the Oklahoma Longitudinal Assessment of Health Outcomes in Mature Adults study and include cognitive performances of 718 community-dwelling older adults.

The RBANS Effort Index: base rates in geriatric samples.

The Effort Index (EI) of the RBANS was developed to assist clinicians in discriminating patients who demonstrate good effort from those with poor effort. However, there are concerns that older adults might be unfairly penalized by this index, which uses uncorrected raw scores. Using five independent samples of geriatric patients with a broad range of cognitive functioning (e.

Gender differences on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status subtests in older adults: baseline and retest data.

Gender differences have been widely reported across a range of cognitive ability tasks, and these differences appear to persist across the lifespan into later adulthood. The current study assessed the influence of gender on the subtests of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) in a large cohort (n = 718) of older adult primary care patients. Males (n = 300) were compared to females (n = 418) on the 12 subtests of the RBANS, after controlling for age and education.

Assessment of the RBANS Visual and Verbal Indices in a sample of neurologically impaired elderly participants.

With increases in the older adult population, brief assessments sensitive to dementia are essential. This study assessed the effectiveness of the verbal memory and visual processing indices proposed by Duff et al. (2009) to differentiate participants with neurological disorders.

Final version of the Distance Randot Stereotest: normative data, reliability, and validity.

Purpose: Measurement of distance stereoacuity may be useful in assessing strabismic patients, especially those with intermittent exotropia. We developed the Distance Randot Stereotest as an easily administered quantitative test for distance stereoacuity in children. By using a prototype, we reported testability, validity, and normative data.

Premorbid intellect and current RBANS performance: discrepancy scores in three geriatric samples.

Assessing cognitive change during a single visit requires the comparison of estimated premorbid abilities and current neuropsychological functioning. As newer instruments are developed to measure current cognitive functioning, their relationships with premorbid estimates need to be evaluated. The current study examined the clinical utility of discrepancy scores between an estimate of premorbid intellect derived from demographic variables (i.

Normative data on and psychometric properties of Verbal and Visual Indexes of the RBANS in older adults.

The original structure of the RBANS includes five Indexes; however, recent factor analyses support a two-factor solution (Duff et al., 2006; Wilde, 2006). Unfortunately, normative and psychometric data do not currently exist on these two new Indexes.

Retention rates on RBANS memory subtests in elderly adults.

Identification of memory impairment is important for neuropsychological diagnostic and research applications, and retention rates on verbal and visual memory tests can provide useful information when characterizing a variety of neurological and psychiatric disorders. Although the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS) is becoming a popular screening battery for cognitive functions, normative data on retention rates are not available. The retention rates of verbal and visual material were evaluated in a sample of clinical patients (n = 109) compared to a healthy control group (n = 718).

Prevalence of amblyopia and other vision disorders in young Newfoundland and Labrador children.

Background: Currently, there is a lack of adequate data on pediatric eye and vision disorders in Canada, particularly in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. In the present study, we estimate the prevalence of eye and vision disorders among young children who participated in a vision screening program in the St. John's, Newfoundland, metropolitan region.

Predicting cognitive change across 3 years in community-dwelling elders.

The determination of clinically significant cognitive change across time is an important issue in neuropsychology, and repeated assessments are common with older adults. Regression-based prediction formulas, which use initial test performance and demographic variables to predict follow-up test performance, have been utilized with patient and healthy control samples. Comparisons between predicted and observed follow-up performances can assist clinicians in determining the significance of change in the individual patient.

Normative and retest data on the RBANS cortical/subcortical index in older adults.

Several neuropsychological disorders have been classified as having either "cortical" or "subcortical" profiles; however, little information is available about the frequency of these profiles in the normal population or their stability on retesting. Therefore, the current study calculated the cortical/subcortical profile index from the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status in a large cohort (n = 793) of older adult primary care patients. The frequency of these profiles was examined, as was their stability across 1- and 2-year periods.

Randot Preschool Stereoacuity Test: normative data and validity.

Introduction: The Randot Preschool Stereoacuity Test is a widely used three-book test for the assessment of binocular status. Using a prototype, we previously reported high testability in children as young as 3 years, validity data, and some normative data. Here we report extensive normative and validity data for the final version of the test.

Modified scoring criteria for the RBANS figures.

Visual construction and memory tasks are routinely used in neuropsychological assessment, but their subjective scoring criteria can negatively affect the reliability of these instruments. The current study examined the standard scoring criteria for the Figure Copy and Recall subtests of the RBANS and compared them to a modified set of scoring criteria in two samples. In both a large community dwelling sample of older adults and in a mixed clinical sample, the original scoring criteria consistently led to lower scores than the modified criteria.