A Feasibility Study Involving Recruitment and Screening for Aphasia in Acute Stroke: Emerging Viability of the English Adaptation of the Language Screening Test (LASTen).
Heather L Flowers, Leanne K Casaubon, Charmaine Arulvarathan and 7 others
PMID 33543088WHAT IT FOUND
Recruiting 12 acute stroke patients for aphasia screening was feasible, taking one year to meet specific demographic targets.
The English adaptation of the Language Screening Test showed strong parallel form reliability. It separated patients with and without aphasia completely, though validation against a gold standard is still needed.
Key findings
01The study successfully recruited 12 patients over one year, establishing an eligibility rate of 25 patients per month.
02Scores on the two versions of the screening test correlated strongly (r=0.95), indicating consistent results regardless of which version was used first.
03Patients without aphasia scored significantly higher (median 15) than those with aphasia (median 10), with no overlap in scores except for one unique case.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was very small (12 patients), which limits the generalizability of the findings. The test administrator knew the study objectives, which could introduce bias. Patients with aphasia were tested much later after stroke onset than those without, potentially affecting performance due to recovery or fatigue. The test has not yet been compared against a criterion standard diagnostic tool to confirm its accuracy.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume the test is clinically validated for diagnosis. This was a feasibility study with a tiny sample that showed the test can separate groups, but it has not yet been compared against a gold standard to prove it accurately identifies aphasia in individual patients.