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Clinimetrics and feasibility of the Italian version of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) in non-demented Parkinson’s disease patients

  • Neurology and Preclinical Neurological Studies - Original Article
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A Correction to this article was published on 04 September 2023

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Abstract

Background

This study aimed at assessing the cross-sectional and longitudinal clinimetrics and feasibility of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) in non-demented Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients.

Methods

N = 109 PD patients underwent the FAB and the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). A subsample of patients further underwent a thorough motor, functional and behavioral evaluation (the last including measures of anxiety, depression and apathy). A further subsample was administered a second-level cognitive battery tapping on attention, executive functioning, language, memory, praxis and visuo-spatial abilities. The following properties of the FAB were tested: (1) concurrent validity and diagnostics against the MoCA; (2) convergent validity against the second-level cognitive battery; (4) association with motor, functional and behavioral measures; (5) capability to discriminate patients from healthy controls (HCs; N = 96); (6) assessing its test–retest reliability, susceptibility to practice effects and predictive validity against the MoCA, as well as deriving reliable change indices (RCIs) for it, at a ≈ 6-month interval, within a subsample of patients (N = 33).

Results

The FAB predicted MoCA scores at both T0 and T1, converged with the vast majority of second-level cognitive measures and was associated with functional independence and apathy. It accurately identified cognitive impairment (i.e., a below-cut-off MoCA score) in patients, also discriminating patients from HCs. The FAB was reliable at retest and free of practice effects; RCIs were derived according to a standardized regression-based approach.

Discussion

The FAB is a clinimetrically sound and feasible screener for detecting dysexecutive-based cognitive impairment in non-demented PD patients.

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Data availability

Datasets associated with the present study are available upon reasonable request of interested researchers at the following link: https://zenodo.org/record/7774009#.ZCFpDnZBxPZ.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are thankful to patients and their caregivers. Roberta Ferrucci was supported from the Ravelli Research Center (CRC) for Neurotechnology and Brain Therapeutics.

Funding

This research was funded by the Italian Ministry of Health to IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano (Ricerca Corrente, project 23C923) and partially supported by the Italian Ministry of Health to Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico.

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Author notes

  1. Edoardo Nicolò Aiello and Alfonsina D’Iorio have contributed equally to this work; Andrea Ciammola and Barbara Poletti have contributed equally as well.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology and Laboratory of Neuroscience, IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano, Piazzale Brescia 20, 20149, Milan, MI, Italy

    Edoardo Nicolò Aiello, Federica Solca, Silvia Torre, Eleonora Colombo, Alessio Maranzano, Luca Maderna, Claudia Morelli, Alberto Doretti, Federico Verde, Vincenzo Silani, Nicola Ticozzi, Andrea Ciammola & Barbara Poletti

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, Caserta, Italy

    Alfonsina D’Iorio & Gabriella Santangelo

  3. Neurology Residency Program, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Ruggero Bonetti & Francesco Scheveger

  4. Institute of Diagnosis and Health, IDC-Hermitage Capodimonte, Naples, Italy

    Marianna Amboni & Carmine Vitale

  5. Department of Medicine, Surgery and Dentistry, University of Salerno, Salerno, Italy

    Marianna Amboni

  6. Department of Motor Sciences and Wellness, University “Parthenope”, Naples, Italy

    Carmine Vitale

  7. Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, “Dino Ferrari Center”, Università Degli Studi Di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Federico Verde, Vincenzo Silani & Nicola Ticozzi

  8. Department of Oncology and Hemato-Oncology, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Roberta Ferrucci & Gabriella Pravettoni

  9. Fondazione IRCCS Ca’ Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy

    Roberta Ferrucci, Sergio Barbieri & Eleonora Zirone

  10. ASST Santi Paolo e Carlo, San Paolo University Hospital, Milan, Italy

    Alberto Priori

  11. Department of Health Sciences, “Aldo Ravelli” Center for Neurotechnology and Experimental Brain Therapeutics, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Alberto Priori

  12. Applied Research Division for Cognitive and Psychological Science, IEO, European Institute of Oncology, IRCCS, Milan, Italy

    Gabriella Pravettoni

Authors
  1. Edoardo Nicolò Aiello
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  2. Alfonsina D’Iorio
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  3. Federica Solca
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  14. Federico Verde
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  20. Gabriella Santangelo
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  21. Vincenzo Silani
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Barbara Poletti.

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Conflict of interest

V. S. received compensation for consulting services and/or speaking activities from AveXis, Cytokinetics, Italfarmaco, Liquidweb S.r.l., Novartis Pharma AG and Zambon, receives or has received research supports from the Italian Ministry of Health, AriSLA, and E-Rare Joint Transnational Call. He is in the Editorial Board of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration, European Neurology, American Journal of Neurodegenerative Diseases, Frontiers in Neurology and Exploration of Neuroprotective Therapy. B.P. received compensation for consulting services and/or speaking activities from Liquidweb S.r.l B.P is Associated Editor for Frontiers in Neuroscience. N. T. received compensation for consulting services from Amylyx Pharmaceuticals and Zambon Biotech SA. He is Associate Editor for Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Ethics Committees of IRCCS Istituto Auxologico Italiano (I.D.: 23C923_2019) and University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”.

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Aiello, E.N., D’Iorio, A., Solca, F. et al. Clinimetrics and feasibility of the Italian version of the Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB) in non-demented Parkinson’s disease patients. J Neural Transm 130, 687–696 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-023-02624-7

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