Study on correlations of the line bisection test with neglect and hemianopia

Objective To investigate clinical performance of the line bisection test for subjects including the Chinese elderly,patients who have neglect with or without hemianopia,and patients with pure hemianopia,and to explore the diagnostic value of the test on neglect and hemianopia,and its neuropsychological mechanisms.Methods Both the 30 healthy Chinese elderly cases(normal control group)and 73 cases with unilateral cerebral damage(experimental group)underwent the line bisection test;the latter 73 cases also underwent examinations to determine whether they had neglect or hemianopia. Results According to the results of neglect and hemianopia examinations,the experimental group was divided into pure neglect,neglect with hemianopia,and pure hemianopia subgroups,and further analyzed.Whether to use the left or right hand,the line bisection test of the normal control group indicated leftward deviation and the deviation by the left hand was more obvious;the comparison between the two hands was significant(P0.001).The line bisection test of the pure neglect subgroup indicated deviation mostly to the ipsilateral of cerebral damage and its comparison with the normal control group was significant(P0.001);the line bisection test for neglect accompanied by hemianopia and pure hemianopia subgroups indicated deviation to the ipsilateral of cerebral damage and deviation by the former was more obvious,so the comparison between the two subgroups was significant (P0.001);the line bisection test of the pure hemianopia subgroup showed deviation to the contralateral of cerebral damage,and its comparison with the normal control group was significant(P0.05). Conclusion The performance of the line bisection test differs between the left and right hands,so it is one of the best approaches for the diagnosis of neglect.The line bisection test is not entirely correlated with other diagnostic tests of neglect;hemianopia may aggravate the degree of neglect of horizontal clues, but does not affect the detection rate of the line bisection test for neglect diagnosis.Briefly,the line bisection test is a beneficial tool of distingnishing neglect from pure hemianopia.