Photo Credit: Dr Microbe

The following is a summary of “How to detect affect recognition alterations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis,” published in the September 2024 issue of Neurology by Castelnovo et al.

Researchers conducted a retrospective study to assess the clinical applicability of an affect recognition (AR) battery-the Comprehensive Affect Testing System (CATS) in an Italian population with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

They compared CATS-A AR subtests and ARQ in 96 patients with ALS and 116 controls. CATS-A AR measures showed good factorial, convergent, and divergent validity. Diagnostic accuracy for cognitive impairment was assessed using receiver-operating characteristics analyses, and optimal cut-offs were identified for CATS-A AR measures with AUC values ≥ 0.70. CATS-A ARQ was used to discriminate between different ALS cognitive phenotypes while Gray-matter (GM) volumes were compared between controls, ALS-nARQ, and ALS-iARQ using ANCOVA models.

The results showed that CATS-A AR subtests and ARQ demonstrated moderate-to-strong convergent and divergent validity. Almost all CATS-A measures achieved acceptable accuracy and diagnostic power (AUC range = 0.79-0.83), ARQ was the best diagnostic measure (sensitivity = 0.80; specificity = 0.75) and distinguished between different ALS cognitive phenotypes, patients with ALS-iARQ exhibited reduced GM volumes in specific brain regions as compared to ALS-nARQ,

They concluded that CATS-A AR subtests, especially the ARQ, are reliable measures of affect recognition in ALS, suggesting that AR deficits may indicate involvement in patients with frontotemporal.

Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00415-024-12686-6