ABSTRACT
Hemispatial neglect due to right parieto-temporo-frontal lesions has a negative impact on the success of rehabilitation, resulting in poor functional gain. Recent research has shown that different types of neglect can impact in a different way on rehabilitation outcomes. The availability of a sensitive test, useful for distinguishing egocentric and allocentric forms of neglect, may be clinically important as all current clinical instruments fail to distinguish between these forms of disturbance, yet they differentially predict outcome. The Apples Test is a new instrument useful to evaluate both egocentric and allocentric forms of neglect. In order to establish Italian norms for this diagnostic instrument the test was administered to a sample of 412 healthy people of both genders (201 M and 211 F), aged from 20 to 80 years enrolled from 14 different rehabilitation centers in Italy. Based on the data, we established pathological performance cut-offs for the accuracy score (total omission errors), the asymmetry score for egocentric neglect (omission error difference), the asymmetry score for allocentric neglect (commission error difference) and execution time. The usefulness of the Apples Test for diagnostic purposes is illustrated by presenting three patients with different forms of neglect (egocentric, allocentric and mixed neglect).
Subject(s)
Attention/physiology , Functional Laterality/physiology , Psychomotor Performance/physiology , Space Perception/physiology , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Educational Status , Female , Humans , Italy , Male , Middle Aged , Neuropsychological Tests , Perceptual Disorders/diagnosis , Reference Values , Visual Fields/physiology , Young AdultABSTRACT
In the course of a population study in Italy, blood samples collected from 802 unrelated newborns and both their parents (when possible) have been examined for galactose-1-phosphate uridyltransferase (GALT) polymorphism. Electrophoresis and quantitative assay of GALT activity were not always sufficient for an accurate identification of the different GALT genotypes; segregation analysis provided better criteria for classification. A parent-child correlation coefficient for GALT activity equal to 0.107-0.155 was found when only the transmission of the normal allele was concerned, but the correlation rose to 0.618-0.682 when the Duarte and Los Angeles alleles were segregating. This confirmed the existence of a low (Duarte) and high (Los Angeles) activity variant. The overall validity of our genotype classification is supported by the good agreement between observed and expected mating types and segregations. The following gene frequencies were found for the different alleles: N = 0.9192, G = 0.0036, D = 0.0372 and LA = 0.0400.
