The Barrow Neurological Institute screen for higher cerebral functions in cognitive screening after stroke

The objective of this study was to evaluate the Barrow Neurological Institute Screen for Higher Cerebral Functions (BNIS) in screening for cognitive dysfunction at long-term follow-up after stroke in young and middle-aged patients. Within the Sahlgrenska Academy Study on Ischemic Stroke Outcome, the BNIS and the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) were administered to 295 consecutive surviving patients seven years after ischemic stroke. All participants were less than 70 years at index stroke. BNIS score less than 47 and an MMSE score less than 29 were chosen to indicate cognitive dysfunction. Two hundred eighty-one (95%) patients completed both tests. The 2 test scores were moderately correlated, and both tests correlated to disability as measured by the modified Rankin Scale. The distribution of the MMSE score was skewed toward the top scores, with a marked ceiling effect, whereas the BNIS score was more normally distributed. Most BNIS subscales showed mean performance around the mid of the scale without ceiling effects. Both tests identified a large proportion of the subjects as cognitive impaired, however, with a substantially larger proportion for the BNIS (89%) compared with the MMSE (65%). We conclude that the BNIS may be a useful screening instrument for cognitive dysfunction after ischemic stroke and that a large proportion of young and middle-aged ischemic stroke survivors showed signs of cognitive dysfunction long after index stroke. Further validations of BNIS against formal neuropsychological testing and studies of the determinants and consequences of long-term cognitive outcome in this patient group are warranted.