The Pittsburgh Impairment Testing Tool (PITT) for Spina Bifida Can Predict Ambulation and Transfer Ability in Adults with Spina Bifida.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to evaluate the predictive accuracy of the Pittsburgh Impairment Testing Tool (PITT). It was hypothesized that PITT would have a good overall accuracy (>80%) for predicting both ambulation and transfer ability and that overall accuracy of PITT would be higher than that of other scales.

DESIGN: A retrospective chart review was used to classify 409 adults with spina bifida according to seven neurological scales. A Naïve Bayes classifier was used to obtain accuracy estimates for predicting both ambulation and transfer ability as a function of each scale.

RESULTS: PITT was the only scale demonstrating >80% overall accuracy for predicting both ambulation and transfer ability. While several scales demonstrated >80% overall accuracy in predicting transfer ability, none were useful in predicting inability to transfer. Inability to transfer was difficult for all tools to predict.

CONCLUSION: PITT demonstrated good overall accuracy for predicting both ambulation and transfer ability. Sensory and anatomic levels were less useful than motor level in predicting functional ability.