Neuropsychological development in school-aged children after surgery or transcatheter closure for ventricular septal defect

Prognostic role of Mini-Mental State Pediatric Examination (MMSPE) on neuropsychological functioning

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to evaluate the ability of the Mini-Mental State Pediatric Examinations (MMSPE) in the individuation of neuropsychological impairments.

METHOD

MMSPE was administered to 60 children attending a primary or lower secondary school suffering from neurological diseases, admitted to our neuropsychology services. All children performed both a MMSPE examination and a neuropsychological evaluation. Results of neuropsychological evaluation and MMSPE were dichotomized. Positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), and accuracy were also calculated.

RESULTS

The diagnostic performance of MMSPE showed a good overall accuracy (0.83, CI 95% 0.64-0.91), NPV (0.81, CI 95% 0.73-1.00), PPV (0.87, CI 95% 0.68-0.94), specificity (0.91, CI 95% 0.81-1.00), sensitivity (0.74, CI 95% 0.57-0.90), and odds ratio of 28.5 (CI 95% 6.6-123), p < 0.001.

CONCLUSIONS

MMSPE has a good prognostic ability in predicting neuropsychological problems in the context of different neurological pediatric diseases. We suggest that this instrument could greatly improve pediatric clinical practice in identifying high-risk children.