Kristen M. Allison|Yana Yunusova|Thomas F. Campbell|Jun Wang|James Berry|Jordan R. Green
The diagnostic utility of patient-report and speech-language pathologists’ ratings for detecting the early onset of bulbar symptoms due to ALS
MGH Institute of Health Professions|University of Toronto|The University of Texas at Dallas|The University of Texas at Dallas|Massachusetts General Hospital|MGH Institute of Health Professions
study aimed determine diagnostic utility clinician speech ratings patient selfreport detecting early bulbar changes associated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis als compared instrumentationbased speech measuresthirtysix individuals als 17 healthy control participants included patients awareness early bulbar motor involvement assessed using selfreported scores amyotrophic lateral sclerosis functional rating scalerevised alsfrsr clinicians detection early bulbar motor involvement assessed perceptual speech ratings two experienced speechlanguage pathologists participants als grouped bulbar presymptomatic bulbar symptomatic based selfreport clinician ratings compared healthy controls six instrumentationbased speech measures roc analysis used compare sensitivity specificity perceptual instrumentationbased measures detecting bulbar changes presymptomatic individualsearly bulbar changes documented using instrumentationbased measures undetected patients clinicians roc analyses indicated instrumentationbased measures outperformed clinicians scaled severity ratings percent pause time best measure differentiating healthy controls bulbar presymptomatic individuals alsfindings suggested instrumentationbased measures speech may necessary early detection bulbar changes due als