The Mind and Liver Test: A New Approach to the Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Resource-Poor Settings
Joint Authors
Das, Saurav
Ali, Sajjadh M. J.
Seward, James
Venkataraman, Jayanthi
Source
International Journal of Hepatology
Issue
Vol. 2014, Issue 2014 (31 Dec. 2014), pp.1-9, 9 p.
Publisher
Hindawi Publishing Corporation
Publication Date
2014-12-08
Country of Publication
Egypt
No. of Pages
9
Main Subjects
Abstract EN
Background and Aims.
Minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE) is diagnosed using neuropsychometric tests or neurophysiological tests that are either inapplicable to illiterate patient population in resource-poor settings or require sophisticated and expensive equipment.
The available tests assess discrete domains of mental impairment.
Our aim was (a) to design a neuropsychometric test that measures all domains of mental impairment in MHE using one metric; (b) to evaluate its sensitivity, specificity, and reproducibility.
Methods.
The mind and liver test (MALT), a psychometric test assessing cognition, memory, and psychometric impairment, each on a scale of 20, was designed keeping in mind the requirements of a universal test.
40 cirrhotics and 36 controls were subjected to critical flicker frequency (CFF) and MALT in same sitting.
ROC curve was plotted for MALT using CFF as gold standard.
Bland-Altman plot was used to find test-retest agreement.
Results.
CFF values and MALT scores varied significantly between the cases and the controls ( P < 0.05 ) .
MALT was 94% sensitive and 83% specific.
Using ROC with CFF as gold standard, the AUC for diagnosis of MHE using MALT score was 0.89.
Test-retest agreement was high (ICC = 0.89).
Conclusion.
In this pilot study, MALT proved to be highly sensitive, specific, inexpensive, and reproducible.
American Psychological Association (APA)
Das, Saurav& Ali, Sajjadh M. J.& Seward, James& Venkataraman, Jayanthi. 2014. The Mind and Liver Test: A New Approach to the Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Resource-Poor Settings. International Journal of Hepatology،Vol. 2014, no. 2014, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1036707
Modern Language Association (MLA)
Das, Saurav…[et al.]. The Mind and Liver Test: A New Approach to the Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Resource-Poor Settings. International Journal of Hepatology No. 2014 (2014), pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1036707
American Medical Association (AMA)
Das, Saurav& Ali, Sajjadh M. J.& Seward, James& Venkataraman, Jayanthi. The Mind and Liver Test: A New Approach to the Diagnosis of Minimal Hepatic Encephalopathy in Resource-Poor Settings. International Journal of Hepatology. 2014. Vol. 2014, no. 2014, pp.1-9.
https://search.emarefa.net/detail/BIM-1036707
Data Type
Journal Articles
Language
English
Notes
Includes bibliographical references
Record ID
BIM-1036707