Are brief batteries able to identify aphasia in elderly people? A study with the ABLA Battery.

Only 16 people per group. The study can show the battery separates the two groups, but says nothing about how well it detects aphasia in a single patient. No cut-off score, sensitivity or specificity is reported, so a low score cannot be turned into a diagnosis. The aphasia group was mixed in type (five types) and severity (moderate to severe), with strokes ranging from acute to chronic, which blurs the group comparison. Both groups averaged about six years of schooling and illiterate participants were not given the reading and writing tasks, so the reading, writing and dictation results may reflect education as much as aphasia. Everyone with aphasia was right-handed with a left-hemisphere stroke, so the findings do not extend to aphasia from other causes. The paper does not say who gave or scored the battery, or whether they knew which group each person was in. The discussion states that the aphasia group performed slightly better on the directed interview, which contradicts the group scores printed in the paper's own results table.

The authors declare no financial support and report nothing else to disclose. No company that sells the battery or any other treatment was involved.

Do not take this as proof that the ABLA Battery diagnoses aphasia. The study only shows that 16 older adults with aphasia scored lower than 16 healthy older adults, and it reports no cut-off score, sensitivity or specificity, so a low score in an individual patient cannot tell you whether aphasia is present. Use it alongside a full language assessment.