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Clinical measures of dysarthria in Friedreich Ataxia
Author(s) -
Singh Arunjot,
Epstein Elizabeth,
Myers Lauren M.,
Farmer Jennifer M.,
Lynch David R.
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
movement disorders
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.352
H-Index - 198
eISSN - 1531-8257
pISSN - 0885-3185
DOI - 10.1002/mds.22776
Subject(s) - dysarthria , ataxia , intelligibility (philosophy) , audiology , aphasia , psychology , cerebellar ataxia , language disorder , physical medicine and rehabilitation , medicine , psychiatry , cognition , philosophy , epistemology
Dysarthria in Friedreich Ataxia (FA) is difficult to quantify. This study evaluated a series of performance measures for speech in 22 patients with genetically confirmed FA and 16 age‐matched controls. Tests included the PATA examination, the PATAKA examination, the Oral Motor component of the Boston Aphasia examination, the Boston Cookie Theft description task, and the Assessment of Intelligibility of Dysarthric Speech. All measures, except the Cookie theft description task, demonstrated significantly lower scores for patients with FA when compared with controls and correlated with measures of disease progression. Thus, four of five measures capture speech dysfunction in FA and may provide feasible, inexpensive, quantitative testing for therapeutic monitoring in FA. © 2009 Movement Disorder Society