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Research Article
Robin Grant
Western General Hospital
Corresponding Author
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Aims:
To evaluate the frequency of impairment on semantic verbal fluency (SVF) test in patients with a new brain tumour prior to neurosurgery and to examine scores across symptom presentations.
Methods:
This is a secondary analysis of clinical, cognitive and capacity data from a prospective study of consent in patients with newly diagnosed brain tumours. Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised version, which includes within it the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), was tested prior to surgery. Patient’s presenting symptoms were categorised into five groups according to a pre-defined criteria. SVF score was converted to a z-score to identify frequency of impairment and raw scores for SVF were compared across symptom presentations.
Results:
A total of 97 patients (51% female; mean age 53.8 years; 53% high-grade tumours; 11% metastases) were assessed. Forty-one percent had headache only or headache “plus”, 26% had focal deficit only; 21% had seizures only, and 13% had cognitive deficits. SVF was impaired in 40% of patients. Adjusted SVF performance was worse for patients with headache symptoms and cognitive deficits than those with focal neurology only or seizures. SVF and MMSE had a positive moderate-strong correlation (r=0.59, p<0.0001).
Conclusion:
Decreased cognitive performance as identified by SVF is common in patients with a new brain tumour, especially those with headache or cognitive deficits. A low SVF may be a useful rapid additional “red flag” for patients with a suspicious headache, when referral to secondary care is considered. Further work needs to be done around the cut-off values for SVF in helping primary care clinicians select patients for early referral.
Keywords
Semantic verbal fluency, brain tumour, headache, headache-plus, cognition
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This is a preprint. It has not completed peer review.
Research Article
Robin Grant
Western General Hospital
Corresponding Author
Badges
Prescreen
This manuscript passed our Prescreen assessment
Complete author information
Appropriate declaration statements
Potential risks to human health
Prescreen
History
CURRENT STATUS: Posted
Version 1
Posted 11 Mar, 2021
No community comments so far
Metrics
Comments: 0
PDF Downloads: ...
HTML Views: ...
License:
This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License. Read Full License
Aims:
To evaluate the frequency of impairment on semantic verbal fluency (SVF) test in patients with a new brain tumour prior to neurosurgery and to examine scores across symptom presentations.
Methods:
This is a secondary analysis of clinical, cognitive and capacity data from a prospective study of consent in patients with newly diagnosed brain tumours. Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised version, which includes within it the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), was tested prior to surgery. Patient’s presenting symptoms were categorised into five groups according to a pre-defined criteria. SVF score was converted to a z-score to identify frequency of impairment and raw scores for SVF were compared across symptom presentations.
Results:
A total of 97 patients (51% female; mean age 53.8 years; 53% high-grade tumours; 11% metastases) were assessed. Forty-one percent had headache only or headache “plus”, 26% had focal deficit only; 21% had seizures only, and 13% had cognitive deficits. SVF was impaired in 40% of patients. Adjusted SVF performance was worse for patients with headache symptoms and cognitive deficits than those with focal neurology only or seizures. SVF and MMSE had a positive moderate-strong correlation (r=0.59, p<0.0001).
Conclusion:
Decreased cognitive performance as identified by SVF is common in patients with a new brain tumour, especially those with headache or cognitive deficits. A low SVF may be a useful rapid additional “red flag” for patients with a suspicious headache, when referral to secondary care is considered. Further work needs to be done around the cut-off values for SVF in helping primary care clinicians select patients for early referral.
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