Utianski, Rene L

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the interrater reliability and validity of the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale (ASRS-3.5) as an index of the presence and severity of apraxia of speech (AOS) and the prominence of several of its important features. Method: Interrater reliability was assessed for 27 participants. Validity was examined in a cohort of 308 participants (120 with and 188 without progressive AOS) through item analysis; item-Total score correlations; correlations among ASRS Total score and component subscores and independent clinical ratings of AOS, dysarthria and aphasia severity, intelligibility, and articulatory errors, as well as years postonset and age; and regression models assessing item and Total score prediction of AOS presence. Results: Interrater reliability was good or excellent for most items and excellent for the Total score. Item and Total score analyses revealed good separation of participants with versus without AOS. Inter-item and item-Total score correlations were generally moderately high as were correlations between the ASRS Total score and independent ratings of AOS severity, intelligibility, and articulatory errors. The Total score was not meaningfully correlated with ratings of aphasia and dysarthria severity, years postonset, or age. Total scores below 7 and above 10 revealed excellent diagnostic sensitivity and specificity for AOS. The presence of eight or more abnormal features was also highly predictive of AOS presence. Conclusions: The ASRS-3.5 is a reliable and valid scale for identifying the presence and severity of AOS and its predominant features. It has excellent sensitivity to AOS presence and excellent specificity relative to aphasia and dysarthria in patients with neurodegenerative disease. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.21817584

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a neurodegenerative syndrome characterized by progressive and predominant language impairment [...]

Purpose: Functional speech disorders (FSDs), a subtype of functional neurological disorders, are distinguishable from neurogenic motor speech disorders based on their clinical features, clinical course, and response to treatment. However, their differential diagnosis and management can be challenging. FSDs are not well understood, but growing evidence suggests a biopsychosocial basis distinct from structural lesions that cause neurogenic motor speech disorders. Method and Results: Following an overview of FSDs, four patients are described to illustrate the range of clinical manifestations, biopsychosocial contexts, and responses to treatment of FSDs. The path to differential diagnosis is discussed, with particular attention to positive features that led to the FSD diagnosis. Approaches to education, counseling, and management are discussed. Conclusions: This case series demonstrates that FSDs can present with a variety of manifestations including dysfluencies, articulation errors, dysphonia, rate and prosodic abnormalities, and combinations of disruptions in speech subsystems. FSDs may present in the context of known recent or remote physical or psychosocial trauma or, as in many cases, in the absence of an identifiable triggering event. FSDs are recognizable by positive clinical features and should not be considered a diagnosis of exclusion. With appropriate identification, counseling, and treatment, FSDs may resolve, sometimes rapidly; in some cases, treatment may be prolonged or ineffective.

The objective of this study was to characterize network-level changes in nonfluent/agrammatic Primary Progressive Aphasia (agPPA) and Primary Progressive Apraxia of Speech (PPAOS) with graph theory (GT) measures derived from scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. EEGs of 15 agPPA and 7 PPAOS patients were collected during relaxed wakefulness with eyes closed (21 electrodes, 10–20 positions, 256 Hz sampling rate, 1–200 Hz bandpass filter). Eight artifact-free, non-overlapping 1024-point epochs were selected. Via Brainwave software, GT weighted connectivity and minimum spanning tree (MST) measures were calculated for theta and upper and lower alpha frequency bands. Differences in GT and MST measures between agPPA and PPAOS were assessed with Wilcoxon rank-sum tests. Of greatest interest, Spearman correlations were computed between behavioral and network measures in all frequency bands across all patients. There were no statistically significant differences in GT or MST measures between agPPA and PPAOS. There were significant correlations between several network and behavioral variables. The correlations demonstrate a relationship between reduced global efficiency and clinical symptom severity (e.g., parkinsonism, AOS). This preliminary, exploratory study demonstrates potential for EEG GT measures to quantify network changes associated with degenerative speech–language disorders.

Purpose: The extent to which research impacts clinical practice is directly related to the availability, accessibility, and relevance of clinical practice research (CPR). The purpose of this article is to describe some of the current barriers to CPR in communication sciences and disorders and review the resources available to support clinical practice researchers. Results: Considerations related to CPR are numerous and relate to its availability, relevance, and accessibility. There are longstanding challenges with the CPR pipeline, which include challenges getting researchers involved in conducting CPR, acquisition of funding to support CPR grant proposals, recognition of the validity and role of less traditional research paradigms in which some CPR is conducted, and publishing and disseminating CPR. The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has developed a number of resources to support the development, execution, dissemination, and utilization of CPR in speech-language pathology and audiology. Conclusions: Clinicians, researchers, and clinician-scientists alike are encouraged to explore ASHA's CPR resources and initiatives. The outcomes of ASHA programs are encouraging in that researchers who participate in CPR initiatives are largely successful in obtaining funding for CPR. This is promising evidence that the availability, relevance, and accessibility barriers to CPR can be mitigated, which will ultimately lead to improved uptake and impact of CPR.

AbstractBackgroundMagnetic resonance brainstem measurements are useful structural biomarkers in the Richardson's syndrome variant of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). However, it is unclear how these biomarkers differ across the phenotypic spectrum of PSP and how they relate to underlying pathology.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to compare brainstem imaging measures across clinical variants of PSP and determine sensitivity and specificity based on pathologically diagnosed cases.MethodsA total of 153 patients with PSP who represented eight clinical variants were recruited at Mayo Clinic (Rochester, MN, USA) and underwent structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Midbrain and pons area and superior and middle cerebellar peduncle width measurements were performed, and midbrain/pons ratio and Magnetic Resonance Parkinsonism Index (MRPI) were calculated. Among the 43 patients who later died, PSP pathology was confirmed in 29, whereas 14 had other pathology.ResultsBrainstem measurements varied across PSP clinical variants and were most abnormal in PSP‐Richardson's syndrome and frontal variants, followed by PSP‐corticobasal, PSP‐speech/language, and PSP‐parkinsonism variants. All these variants showed abnormalities compared with controls. The PSP‐gait freezing variant and patients with prominent corticospinal tract signs showed normal brainstem measures. Among cases with confirmed PSP pathology, the midbrain area, midbrain/pons ratio, and MRPI were all more abnormal compared to those with other pathologies, with best differentiation obtained with the MRPI (sensitivity = 83%; specificity = 85%).ConclusionsMRI brainstem measures show utility as diagnostic biomarkers across PSP clinical variants and have the potential to be useful in predicting underlying pathology. © 2021 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

ABSTRACTBackgroundProgressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) may present as a speech/language disorder (PSP‐SL).ObjectiveWe assessed pathological correlates of patients with PSP‐SL who retained the suggestive of PSP‐SL (s.o. PSP‐SL) diagnosis versus those who progressed to possible/probable (poss./prob.) PSP.MethodsThirty‐four prospectively recruited patient with s.o. PSP‐SL completed comprehensive speech/language and neurological assessments longitudinally, died, and underwent autopsy.ResultsTwelve patients (35%) evolved to poss./prob PSP, while 22 (65%) remained as s.o. PSP‐SL. Pathological diagnoses differed across the groups (P = 0.025). Patients with s.o. PSP‐SL had four different neuropathologies (corticobasal degeneration [59%], PSP [13%], Pick's disease [14%], and frontotemporal lobar degeneration with TDP‐43 [14%]), while all patients with poss./prob. PSP had a 4R‐tauopathy (PSP [67%] and corticobasal degeneration [33%]). Development of poss./prob. PSP increased the chance of having PSP pathology by 2.38 times.ConclusionsPSP‐SL is associated with heterogenous pathologies. Evolution of PSP‐SL into poss./prob. PSP is more predictive of underlying PSP pathology than s.o. PSP‐SL. © 2021 International Parkinson and Movement Disorder Society

Purpose Individuals with primary progressive apraxia of speech have apraxia of speech (AOS) as the initial and predominant symptom. Many develop aphasia and/or dysarthria later in the disease course. It was previously demonstrated that patients with neurodegenerative AOS experience reduced participation in communication that is further exacerbated by co-occurring language deficits ( Utianski et al., 2020 ). Measures of disease severity did not necessarily correlate with measures of participation restrictions. The aim of this follow-up study was to describe changes in communication limitations in these patients, again measured by (a) the patient via the Communicative Participation Item Bank (CPIB) and (b) the speech-language pathologist via the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's (ASHA's) Functional Communication Measures (FCMs) and an adapted motor speech disorder (MSD) severity rating to determine if there are significant changes in these and other objective speech and language measures at follow-up after 1 year. Method Of the 24 patients reported in the study of Utianski et al. (2020) , 17 (10 men, seven women) returned for a second visit approximately 1 year following the first visit. Identical procedures were utilized; the communication measures collected at each visit were statistically compared. Correlations were calculated between the participation ratings and other clinical assessment measures at the second visit and for the change in scores on those measures between the first and second visits. Results There were statistically significant differences in AOS and aphasia severity between visits. There were significant changes in clinical assessments, MSD severity rating, and all ASHA FCMs between visits, but not the CPIB. Correlation analyses suggest the relationships among clinical and participation measures are complex; overall, patients with more severe changes in AOS experienced greater changes in participation restrictions. Conclusions The findings of this study support the use of patient-reported outcome measures as they may better reflect the patient experience, including the influence of factors such as ongoing speech therapy and the emergence of neuropsychiatric features, and associated changes in day-to-day functioning, when other measures may simply index the progression of the disease. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.16528512

Purpose This study describes motor speech disorders and associated communication limitations in six variants of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Method The presence, nature, and severity of dysarthria and apraxia of speech (AOS) were documented, along with scores on the Apraxia of Speech Rating Scale–Version 3 (ASRS-3) for 77 (40 male and 37 female) patients with PSP. Clinician-estimated and patient-estimated communication limitations were rated using the Motor Speech Disorders Severity Rating (MSDSR) Scale and the Communicative Effectiveness Survey (CES), respectively. Descriptive statistics were calculated for each of these dependent variables. One-tailed t tests were conducted to test mean differences in ASRS-3 and CES between participants with and without AOS and between participants with and without dysarthria. Spearman rank correlations were calculated between ASRS-3 scores and clinical judgments of AOS and dysarthria severity and between MSDSR and CES ratings. Results Nine participants (12%) had normal speech. Eighty-seven percent exhibited dysarthria; hypokinetic and mixed hypokinetic–spastic dysarthria were observed most frequently. AOS was observed in 19.5% of participants across all variants, but in only 10% exclusive of the PSP speech and language variant. Nearly half presented with AOS in which neither phonetic nor prosodic features clearly predominated. The mean ASRS-3 score for participants with AOS was significantly higher than for those without and correlated strongly with clinician judgment of AOS severity. Mean ASRS-3 was higher for participants with dysarthria than for those without but correlated weakly with dysarthria severity. Mean MSDSR and CES ratings were lower in participants with AOS compared to those without and moderately correlated with each other. Conclusions Motor speech disorders that negatively impact communicative effectiveness are common in PSP and occur in many variants. This is the first description of motor speech disorders across PSP variants, setting the stage for future research characterizing neuroanatomical correlates, progression of motor speech disorders, and benefits of targeted interventions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.14111837

Purpose Individuals with primary progressive apraxia of speech (PPAOS) have apraxia of speech (AOS) in which disruptions in articulation or prosody predominate the speech pattern, referred to, respectively, as phonetic or prosodic subtypes. Many develop aphasia and/or dysarthria. Past research has demonstrated that simple temporal acoustic measures are sensitive to the presence of AOS. The aim of this study was to describe the change in temporal acoustic measures over time and assess if specific patterns of AOS or co-occurring aphasia or dysarthria impact the rate of change over time. Method Durations for multiple productions of the words cat , catnip , catapult , and catastrophe , in an imitative speech task, were recorded for 73 patients, with two to six visits each. A linear mixed-effects model was used to assess the cross-sectional differences and longitudinal influence of AOS subtype and presence of aphasia/dysarthria on speech rate. Pearson correlations were calculated between rate measures and performance on other clinical measures. Results Cross-sectionally, patients with prosodic-predominant PPAOS produced words more slowly than those with phonetic-predominant PPAOS. Patients with either aphasia or dysarthria produced words more slowly than those without. Longitudinally, the speech rate of patients with phonetic-predominant PPAOS had a reduction of 0.5 syllables per second per year. Patients with prosodic-predominant AOS changed less quickly, as did those who developed aphasia. Dysarthria did not impact rate of change. There were strong associations between speech rate measures and other clinical indices of speech and language functioning. Conclusion Simple temporal acoustic measures may reflect the subtype of AOS (phonetic or prosodic predominant), serve as an index of progression of AOS, and inform prognostication relative to the presenting combination of speech and language features. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.13564724