Language alterations in elderly patients with dementia assessed with the MAC Battery

Revista da Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia

Gindri, Gigiane¹  Koehler, Cristine¹  Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre, Porto Alegre, Brasil¹  Bós, Angelo José Gonçalves¹  Mancopes, Renata¹  Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brasil¹ 

关键词: Communication;    Language;    Assessment;    Dementia;    Alzheimer's disease;   

DOI  :  10.1590/S1516-80342012000100005

来源: Sociedade Brasileira de Fonoaudiologia

【 摘 要 】

PURPOSE:To identify language deficits in a group of elderly patients with dementia in tasks of free lexical retrieval, lexical retrieval with orthographic and semantic criteria, interpretation of metaphors and of narrative discourse, from the Montreal Communication Evaluation Battery – MAC Battery, as well as to verify the frequency of deficits. METHODS: Participants were 13 patients with mild to moderate dementia, treated at the Neurology sector of the Ambulatory of Movement Disorders and Dementia of the Hospital Santa Clara of the Irmandade Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Porto Alegre (ISCMPA). The neuropsychological assessment instrument was the MAC Battery, and the tasks were applied in the following order: free lexical retrieval, lexical retrieval based on orthographic criteria, lexical retrieval based on semantic criteria, interpretation of metaphors, and interpretation of narrative discourse. RESULTS: The group of patients with dementia showed impaired performance in all tasks from MAC Battery that were evaluated, with significant difference. Furthermore, participants presented higher frequency of deficits, in descending order, in partial retelling of narrative discourse tasks (essential and present information), followed by the tasks of lexical retrieval with orthography and semantic criteria, and full retelling of narrative discourse. At least two patients showed deficits in some of the five tasks performed from the MAC battery. CONCLUSION: Language evaluation using the MAC Battery allowed the verification of language processing deficits in elderly with dementia, characterizing that this instrument is also applicable to this clinical population.

【 授权许可】

Unknown