Contributions
Abstract: P370
Type: Poster
Abstract Category: Clinical aspects of MS - 7 MS symptoms
Background: In many patients multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with cognitive deficits. Previous studies indicated that cognitive flexibility and executive functions are impaired in MS patients. The aim of this study was to examine cognitive flexibility in MS patients compared to healthy controls, to evaluate associations with MRI changes and to study cognitive flexibility over a time-course of two years. We present preliminary results regarding cognitive flexibility.
Patients and methods: 38 MS patients and 38 matched healthy controls were tested. Patients (22 female, 16 male, mean age 40.6 ± 9.7 years; 35 relapsing-remitting MS, 3 secondary progressive MS) did not differ significantly from controls in age, gender and education. Mean disease duration in patients was 11.1 ± 6.1 years. Both groups were tested using the Trail Making Test forms A and B (TMT-A, TMT-B), that tests for information processing speed and cognitive flexibility, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), testing for executive functions, and the Regensburger Test of word fluency. We used paired t-tests for comparing patients to controls.
Results: Patients did not differ significantly from controls in ten categories of the WCST. Patients were significantly slower in completing TMT-A than controls (34.6 s ± 16.2; 27.3 s ± 10.5; p = 0.019) and in completing TMT-B (69.5 s ± 58; 56.4 s ± 19.4; p = 0.04; s = seconds). Word Fluency did not differ between patients and controls with respect to the change of lexical categories, but the patients performed significantly worse in changing between semantic categories: correct words after 1 minute 15 ± 3.2; 16.7 ± 3; p = 0.038; after the 2nd minute 7.6 ± 2.1; 9.1 ± 2.5, p = 0.003 and after the two minutes: sum of correct words 22.6 ± 3.8; 25.7 ± 4.7; p = 0.003.
Conclusion: Reduced information processing speed and reduced cognitive flexibility have been described as core deficits in MS patients. Our results indicate that when MS patients are pressed for time as in the Trail Making Test and the changes of categories in the word fluency test, their performance gets significantly worse due to a reduced information processing speed. Deficits in cognitive flexibility have to be interpreted in tandem with the information processing speed.
Disclosure: The study was supported by a grant from the Österreichische Multiple Sklerose Forschungsgesellschaft.
Disclosures:
Zebenholzer: nothing to disclose
Schmöger: nothing to disclose
Deckert: nothing to disclose
Schmied: nothing to disclose
Bajer-Kornek: nothing to disclose
Arndorfer: nothing to disclose
Rezwanapanah-Posteh: nothing to disclose
Schneider: nothing to disclose
Willinger: nothing to disclose
Abstract: P370
Type: Poster
Abstract Category: Clinical aspects of MS - 7 MS symptoms
Background: In many patients multiple sclerosis (MS) is associated with cognitive deficits. Previous studies indicated that cognitive flexibility and executive functions are impaired in MS patients. The aim of this study was to examine cognitive flexibility in MS patients compared to healthy controls, to evaluate associations with MRI changes and to study cognitive flexibility over a time-course of two years. We present preliminary results regarding cognitive flexibility.
Patients and methods: 38 MS patients and 38 matched healthy controls were tested. Patients (22 female, 16 male, mean age 40.6 ± 9.7 years; 35 relapsing-remitting MS, 3 secondary progressive MS) did not differ significantly from controls in age, gender and education. Mean disease duration in patients was 11.1 ± 6.1 years. Both groups were tested using the Trail Making Test forms A and B (TMT-A, TMT-B), that tests for information processing speed and cognitive flexibility, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), testing for executive functions, and the Regensburger Test of word fluency. We used paired t-tests for comparing patients to controls.
Results: Patients did not differ significantly from controls in ten categories of the WCST. Patients were significantly slower in completing TMT-A than controls (34.6 s ± 16.2; 27.3 s ± 10.5; p = 0.019) and in completing TMT-B (69.5 s ± 58; 56.4 s ± 19.4; p = 0.04; s = seconds). Word Fluency did not differ between patients and controls with respect to the change of lexical categories, but the patients performed significantly worse in changing between semantic categories: correct words after 1 minute 15 ± 3.2; 16.7 ± 3; p = 0.038; after the 2nd minute 7.6 ± 2.1; 9.1 ± 2.5, p = 0.003 and after the two minutes: sum of correct words 22.6 ± 3.8; 25.7 ± 4.7; p = 0.003.
Conclusion: Reduced information processing speed and reduced cognitive flexibility have been described as core deficits in MS patients. Our results indicate that when MS patients are pressed for time as in the Trail Making Test and the changes of categories in the word fluency test, their performance gets significantly worse due to a reduced information processing speed. Deficits in cognitive flexibility have to be interpreted in tandem with the information processing speed.
Disclosure: The study was supported by a grant from the Österreichische Multiple Sklerose Forschungsgesellschaft.
Disclosures:
Zebenholzer: nothing to disclose
Schmöger: nothing to disclose
Deckert: nothing to disclose
Schmied: nothing to disclose
Bajer-Kornek: nothing to disclose
Arndorfer: nothing to disclose
Rezwanapanah-Posteh: nothing to disclose
Schneider: nothing to disclose
Willinger: nothing to disclose