Video Tracking of Cancellation Is Sensitive to Acute Brain Impairment and Disability (P3.226)

OBJECTIVE: To assess feasibility and sensitivity to brain illness and functional recovery of video tracking of cancellation tests. BACKGROUND: Search organization may reflect executive ability and thus be important to neurorehabilitation. Extant methods to quantify search organization are hindered by expense, complex instrumentation, or difficulty marking targets on touchscreens from impaired motor control. In contrast, pen-and-paper cancellation can easily be measured with automated video tracking and is negligibly affected by moderately impaired motor control. This method, therefore, may assess a wider range of brain-impaired subjects than previously. This is the first study of compliance with this method and sensitivity to acute brain illness and rehabilitation outcome. DESIGN/METHODS: 21 adults with acute disabling brain illness (stroke, trauma, tumor) from a rehabilitation hospital were compared to 22 age-matched healthy controls. Participants’ pens were video recorded while they completed 4 parallel versions of star cancellation pages. Commercial video tracking software converted pen movements to Cartesian coordinates, which were exported to Excel to regress x - and y -values against order of appearance (Mark et al, Neurology 2004). The higher correlation coefficient from x vs. y plots from each page quantified search organization; outcomes for each subject were the averaged correlation coefficients. Change in Functional Independence Measure (FIM) scores over the first 2 weeks of care was used to assess recovery. RESULTS: Brain-impaired patients had significantly worse cancellation organization (mean coefficient patients = 0.77 vs controls = 0.91, F =14.3, p r = 0.22). CONCLUSIONS: Video tracking of search on cancellation offers a simple, inexpensive, non-intrusive method to assess executive control in a wide variety of brain-impaired patients and appears to tap cognitive functions important to functional recovery. Study Supported by: UAB Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Resident Scholarly Project Program Disclosure: Dr. Mullins has nothing to disclose. Dr. Mark has nothing to disclose. Dr. Woods has nothing to disclose. Dr. Banasiewicz has nothing to disclose.