Assessment and Diagnosis Flashcards

Which structure is most commonly damaged in a coup-contrecoup injury involving a blow to the back of the head (occiput)?

Answer: Frontal and temporal poles at the contrecoup site

A blow to the occiput commonly produces contrecoup damage to the frontal and temporal poles, which are particularly vulnerable due to irregular skull surfaces.

When a TBI patient has a normal CT scan but reports persistent headaches, cognitive difficulties, and sleep disturbance, the CBIS should suspect:

Answer: Mild TBI with physiological disruption not visible on CT

Mild TBI commonly produces no CT abnormalities yet causes real physiological disruption detectable by MRI, neuropsychological testing, and symptom inventories.

The 'N-back task' used in neuropsychological assessment primarily measures which cognitive domain?

Answer: Working memory and sustained attention

The N-back task requires continuously updating mental representations of stimuli, directly assessing working memory and sustained attention capacity.

A CBIS professional observes that a patient's behavior changes significantly depending on the environment and the assessor. This variability is MOST likely attributable to:

Answer: Neurological inconsistency consistent with TBI-related fatigue and context sensitivity

TBI patients commonly show performance variability due to fatigue, overstimulation, and context sensitivity, which reflects genuine neurological dysfunction.

Which of the following is the PRIMARY purpose of the Comprehensive Trail Making Test (CTMT) in TBI assessment?

Answer: Evaluating executive function, attention, and processing speed

The CTMT assesses executive function, visual search, mental flexibility, and processing speed by requiring patients to connect numbered or mixed sequences.

In TBI diagnosis, what does a 'battle sign' indicate?

Answer: Basilar skull fracture with posterior fossa involvement

Battle sign (ecchymosis over the mastoid process behind the ear) is a clinical sign of basilar skull fracture in the posterior fossa.

The Orientation Log (O-Log) is primarily used to monitor which phase of TBI recovery?

Answer: Post-traumatic amnesia (PTA) resolution

The O-Log is a brief daily measure of orientation used to track emergence from post-traumatic amnesia during inpatient rehabilitation.