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Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which primary symptoms emerges in adults between the ages of 20 and 40 years. The prevalence of cognitive impairments in patients with MS is 45-65%, depending on the sensitivity and accuracy of neuropsychological measures. During recent past years, dominant approach to screening of cognitive impairments in patients with MS was to develop brief neuropsychological test collections. In this study, Clock Drawing Test was used for screening of cognitive impairments in patients with relapsing-remitting MS. Methods: In this case-control research done in Isfahan MS association, Iran, 49 women with relapsing-remitting MS and 43 age-, education- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched women without MS were selected by purposeful sampling. Both groups were tested using Clock Drawing Test. Findings: The multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) test indicated meaningful difference between patients and controls in both clock (1:45) free-drawn task and clock (3:00) simple copying task (P < 0.001). In addition, patients had shown more errors in clock drawing, placing numbers and handles, and in showing the asked time. The test had 92% of sensitivity and 89% of specificity. Conclusion: According to the study results, patients with MS have more error in clock drawing which probably is because of clock drawing sensitivity in cognitive impairment screening. Thus, it can be used to screen cognitive impairments in patients with MS.

Objectives: Early diagnosis of cognitive disorders in order to initiate new efficient treatments in time is an important task which cannot be fulfilled without proper cognitive screening tools. The Clock Drawing Test (CDT) is a simple inexpensive cognitive screening tool which can be used in primary care settings delivering health services to older people. The aim of this study was to assess validity and reliability of the CDT in Iranian older population. Methods & Materials: In this study the CDT and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) were concurrently performed on 74 literate participants aged 60 and over. Participants were recruited from the clients of Iran Alzheimer’s Association (dementia patients and non-demented clients, including other patients or care givers) during a 5 month period. The CDT was performed by two trained raters using Shulman’s six points scoring method. Using SPSS version 20, reliability was assessed measuring kappa statistics as well as ICC. Concurrent validity between CDT and MMSE were statistically analyzed by spearman’s rank correlation coefficient. Results: Mean age of the participants was 72 years in a range of 60 to 90 years with equal numbers 0f male and female participants. Kappa statistics for test retest reliability was 0.554 (P

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system in which primary symptoms emerges in adults between the ages of 20 and 40 years. The prevalence of cognitive impairments in patients with MS is 45-65%, depending on the sensitivity and accuracy of neuropsychological measures. During recent past years, dominant approach to screening of cognitive impairments in patients with MS was to develop brief neuropsychological test collections. In this study, Clock Drawing Test was used for screening of cognitive impairments in patients with relapsingremitting MS. Methods: In this case-control research done in Isfahan MS association, Iran, 49 women with relapsingremitting MS and 43 age-, education- and intelligence quotient (IQ)-matched women without MS were selected by purposeful sampling. Both groups were tested using Clock Drawing Test. Findings: The multivariate variance analysis (MANOVA) test indicated meaningful difference between patients and controls in both clock (1:45) free-drawn task and clock (3:00) simple copying task (P < 0.001). In addition, patients had shown more errors in clock drawing, placing numbers and handles, and in showing the asked time. The test had 92% of sensitivity and 89% of specificity. Conclusion: According to the study results, patients with MS have more error in clock drawing which probably is because of clock drawing sensitivity in cognitive impairment screening. Thus, it can be used to screen cognitive impairments in patients with MS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]