Multicenter validation of a bedside antisaccade task as a measure of executive function.

OBJECTIVE: To create and validate a simple, standardized version of the antisaccade (AS) task that requires no specialized equipment for use as a measure of executive function in multicenter clinical studies. METHODS: The bedside AS (BAS) task consisted of 40 pseudorandomized AS trials presented on a laptop computer. BAS performance was compared with AS performance measured using an infrared eye tracker in normal elders (NE) and individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia (n = 33). The neuropsychological domain specificity of the BAS was then determined in a cohort of NE, MCI, and dementia (n = 103) at UCSF, and the BAS was validated as a measure of executive function in a 6-center cohort (n = 397) of normal adults and patients with a variety of brain diseases. RESULTS: Performance on the BAS and laboratory AS task was strongly correlated and BAS performance was most strongly associated with neuropsychological measures of executive function. Even after controlling for disease severity and processing speed, BAS performance was associated with multiple assessments of executive function, most strongly the informant-based Frontal Systems Behavior Scale. CONCLUSIONS: The BAS is a simple, valid measure of executive function in aging and neurologic disease.

[Renal and nephronal function diagnosis in the aged experimental rat]. / Renale und nephronale Funktionsdiagnostik am Experimentaltier Ratte.

An investigation method concerning the renal and nephronal functional diagnostics on the experimental animal rat without analysis of microbes, without micropuncture technique and without use of inulin or paraamino-hippuric acid-analogous radiopharmaca is demonstrated. It is based on the steady state investigation principle using inulin and paraamino-hippuric acid as test substances. The exactness of the method is established by critical considerations of the methods concerning the stabilisation of the humoral balance. by estimation of the behaviour of the functional parameters after heminephrectomy as well as by comparative valuation of the own results by findings reported in literature. The established renal and nephronal functional parameters comprise glomerulofiltrative and tubulosecretory as well as tubuloreabsorptive processes in the water, sodium and paraamino-hippuric acid treatment.