Adaptation and Validation of Persian Progressive Aphasia Language Scale (PALS): A neuropsychological tests for the assessment of speechand language disorders

Background and Aim:Primary Progressive Aphasia (PPA) is a neurological condition characterized by progressive dissolution of language capabilities. Speech and language impairments are the key clinical feature in several neurodegenerative disorders and PPA is the syndrome where they are the prominent features. Their accurate and early identification may increase the diagnosis in the clinical setting. This approach may allow a better discrimination between the different neurodegenerative disorders and the PPA variants, i.e., nonfluent, semantic, logopenic. The Progressive Aphasia Language Scale (PALS) is an easy-to-apply bedside clinical scale that is capable of capturing and grading the key language features essential for the classification of PPA. The objective of the present study was to develop and validate the Persian version of the PALS (PALS-P) as a clinical language assessment test.Methods:In this cross-sectional study, PALSwas translated and adapted into Persian according to the international guidelines. A total of 30 subjects (10 subjects with PPA and 20 control subjects without dementia) were included to evaluate the intra-rater reliability and discriminant validity of PALS-P.Results:The intra-rater reliability of the PALS-P within a 14-day interval was excellent for each sub-test (ICCagreement range = 0.81-1.0). There were statistically significant differences between groups on PALS-P, suggesting its discriminative validity. Conclusion:This preliminary study revealed that the PALS-P was successfully developed and translated. The PALS-P may be a valid and reliable screening tool to assess language skills in Persian-speaking subjects with progressive aphasia.

Keywords:

Neurodegenerative disorders , PPA , Aphasia , Progressive Aphasia Language Scale , clinical validity