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Utility of Boston Qualitative Scoring System for Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure: evidence from a Parkinson’s Diseases sample

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Abstract

This study examined the ability of the Boston Qualitative Scoring System (BQSS) in comparison to the Osterrieth scoring method to separate Parkinson’s Disease patients without dementia from healthy controls at the Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure (ROCF) copy. 30 PD participants and 30 healthy participants completed ROCF copy. The performance was scored according to both methods. The results indicated that PD patients performed significantly worse on ROCF. According to ROC analyses, BQSS Copy Total score represented the most suitable index to distinguish between the two groups: a score below or equal to 16 indicates an impaired performance. Moreover, PD participants reported lower performance in the BQSS scores of Planning and Neatness. PD patients’ poor performance in ROCF copy was related to executive difficulties, specifically in terms of planning and impulsivity, instead of global visuo-constructional impairments. An extensive evaluation of copy drawings allowing to disentangle between different involved cognitive domains would be suitable, specifically in those clinical conditions like PD, in which motor impairments affect drawing performance.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Guido E. d’Aniello to help in recruiting patients; moreover, the authors thank all subjects for their kind participation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Psychology Research Laboratory, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, VCO, Italy

    Federica Scarpina & Erika Ambiel

  2. “Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Federica Scarpina & Alessandro Mauro

  3. Division of Neurology and Neuro-Rehabilitation, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Ospedale San Giuseppe, Piancavallo, VCO, Italy

    Giovanni Albani, Luca Guglielmo Pradotto & Alessandro Mauro

Authors
  1. Federica Scarpina
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  2. Erika Ambiel
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  3. Giovanni Albani
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  4. Luca Guglielmo Pradotto
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  5. Alessandro Mauro
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Correspondence to Federica Scarpina.

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Scarpina, F., Ambiel, E., Albani, G. et al. Utility of Boston Qualitative Scoring System for Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure: evidence from a Parkinson’s Diseases sample. Neurol Sci 37, 1603–1611 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2631-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-016-2631-9

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