Status of Occupational Therapists on Unilateral Neglect Test Tools Usage and Symptom Classification

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate the current status of the use of neglect test tools and the awareness for egocentric neglect (EN) and allocentric neglect (AN). METHODS: A survey questionnaire was distributed to occupational therapists attending continuing education at the Daegu-Gyeongbuk branch on April 16. A total 143 responses were collected, and with the exception of 5 incomplete responses, 138 of them were analyzed. RESULTS: The most commonly used unilateral neglect test tools were the line bisection test (86 responses, 62.3%), cancellation test (35 responses, 25.4%), copy and drawing test (7 responses, 5.1%). In a follow-up survey of 86 respondents who used line bisection tests as the most commonly used test, the majority (82 responses, 95.3%2) were found to use the 20-line test paper. In question about the familiarity and education experience for test manual, only 20 responses (23.2%) and 3 responses (3.5%) answered ‘Yes’. In a question about the experience of a manual and the article for the manual, 25 responses (29.1%) answered ‘Yes’. In the question regarding the separation of EN and AN on the unilateral neglect test, 44 responses (31.9%) were ‘distinction’ and 94 responses (68.1%) were ‘no distinction’. CONCLUSION: Information on the guidance and interpretation of the line bisection test is lacking and the concept of EN and AN was insufficient.

Cross-over in line bisection among stroke patients / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

Objective To explore possible mechanisms of the cross-over observed in stroke patients comple-ting a line bisection test. Methods Twenty-five stroke patients with left neglect and twenty normal subjects were studied.In the ordinary line bisection test,there are two papers presenting 20 mm and 100 mm lines respectively.On each paper,three lines with the same length are presented at the left,middle and right of the paper.In the line im-age test,the two papers are the same as in line bisection test,but here subjects are asked to set endpoints of each re-al line. Results Replicating earlier findings,length cross-over was observed in the patients with neglect.In the hline image test,those patients neglected lines on both sides but with a much larger proportion on the left.The patientsunderestimated long lines as in previous studies,but they also underestimated very short lines in contrast to earlier findings. Conclusion Foveal neglect sparing may explain these observations.For very short lines,the left end of the line falls into foveal vision and the left part of the line was not neglected.As a result,the crossover effect of line length occurs.

Clinical Usefulness of Computer Assisted Line Bisection Task for the Assessment of Sensory-Attenional Aspect of Visuospatial Neglect

OBJECTIVE: To assess the clinical usefulness of computer- assisted line bisection task for the patients with sensory- attentional visuospatial neglect. METHOD: Forty patients with unilateral hemispheric stroke (25 right, 15 left) and 15 normal age-matched subjects participated in this study. Computer-assisted line bisection task (CALBT) was designed using modified Milner landmark test to assess the sensory-attentional aspect of visuospatial neglect. Accuracy of response and reaction time for the transected lines, and response rate for the bisected lines were measured. Correlation between the results of CALBT and conventional line bisection test and Albert test was evaluated. RESULTS: In patients with right hemispheric lesion, results of CALBT demonstrated shifting of attention to the right hemifield and neglect of the stimulus in the left hemifield. In contrast, patients with left hemispheric lesion showed significantly decreased attention to the right hemifield and shifting of attention to the left hemifield. Performances of CALBT correlated with the line bisection test, but not with the Albert test. CONCLUSION: Computed assisted line bisection task can be used for the quantitative assessment of the sensory attentional aspect of visuospatial attention in patients with unilateral neglect.

The Effect of the Prism Therapy on the Stroke Patients with the Visuospatial Neglect Preliminary Study

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of the prism which deviates the optical axis 10 degree rightward in the stroke patients who have visuospatial neglect and to evaluate how long it will last. METHOD: The subjects were 9 left hemiplegic patients who showed the feature of hemineglect. The prism goggle was applied and the patients were trained the midline point direction exercise. It's effect was evaluated by the line bisection test and the Albert test at the pre-training, immediate, 2 hours and 6 hours after the training respectively. RESULTS: The line bisection test and Albert test were not improved significantly at each evaluation time after the training. CONCLUSION: This result revealed the prism therapy does not have a significant effect on the line bisection task and Albert test in the hemineglect patients consistently. The line bisection result in the line located in the left or right side at the 2 hours after the training was improved but it could not exclude the training effect of the repetition of the test.