VISUO-SPATIAL MEMORY EVALUATION OF SUBJECTS WITH RECENTLY-DIAGNOSED MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO TESTS.

Resumo

Objective: It has been claimed that the Brief Visuospatial Memory Test-Revised (BVMTR) is more sensitive than the 7/24 Spatial Recall Test, the aim of this research is to compare the tests qualitatively and quantitatively. Methods: the tests were administered to a group of 100 subjects who had had relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis for less than five years, and to another group of 45 healthy participants. Results: both tests showed significant differences between groups, p < .05, healthy participants obtained the highest performance rate. BVMTR had the highest effect size, with 1.8 total score. A binary logistic regression analysis for the cases and controls variable (Diagnosis Status) retained only the delayed recall score of BVMT-R, explaining 33% of the variance, with an adequate prediction of 77.9% of the cases. Conclusions: results show that the BVMTR is more sensitive, but each test’s specific characteristics need to be pondered during the neuropsychological practice, when examining cases in particular. This is the first study to compare the two most popular visual memory tests for recently-diagnosed relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis subjects.