Feasibility of a Novice Line Bisection Testing System Developed to Assess Unilateral Visual Neglect

초록

Objective: This study was conducted to investigate the feasibility of a novice assessment and rehabilitation system for patients with unilateral visual neglect for further application in the medical field. Currently, unilateral visual neglect (UN) is assessed by pen and paper based tests and direct observation by trained clinicians. Assessor subjectivity still exists for possible inter-rater variability with significant amount of assessment time consumption despite the standardized assessment protocols. Therefore, a novice system composed of an electronic pen and pattern-printed paper wirelessly linked a computer was developed to expedite the assessment process and increase the accuracy of the results. Method: As a preliminary study to evaluate the applicability of a novice device developed to assess and rehabilitate patients with unilateral visual neglect, thirteen healthy volunteers with mean age of 26±2.87 and education duration of 17.15±1.95 years were recruited. Mini-Mental Status Examination (MMSE) was used as a neuropsychological testing tool to evaluate the cognitive status. Assessed variables included percent deviation, completion time, and assessment duration. The validity and reliability of the novice system was assessed by comparing the resulting data assessed by the novice system and two blinded raters. Results: The measured variables assessed by the novice system were shown to be highly valid (.859 and.895; p＞.01) and reliable. The assessment times for the conventional method were 460.46±194.22 and 525.62±180.733 seconds for each raters whereas the novice device assessed the results in real time. Conclusion: The novice system to automatically assess the line bisection test results in real time with high validity and reliability was shown to be feasible for further application of the system in the clinical setting.