Contributions
Abstract: EP1549
Type: Poster Sessions
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - Neuropsychology
Introduction: Cognitive impairment (CI) affects a large proportion of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but the clinical attention to neuropsychological aspects usually begins too late, when CI is, unfortunately, already evident also without formal testing.
Aim: To assess cognitive performance of a group of MS patients without diagnosis of formal CI at the time of MS diagnosis compared with a group of matched healthy controls (HC).
Methods: Twenty-seven MS patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) course (8 CIS and 19 RRMS, 21 F, Age: 35.6±10.9, Education: 14.0±2.2, Disease duration: 3.2±4.0) and 27 matched HC were tested with the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB; Rao et al., 1990). First, we have ensured that all MS patients had no CI according to the widely accepted classical approach (0 or 1 subtest under the cut-off score of normative data). Second, we assigned a “cognitive performance score” (CPS) considering the z-scores of each subtest of the BRB (the higher the value, the higher the cognitive performance). Third, with the same approach, we also calculated a global CPS (global-CPS) as the sum of each CPS of the BRB subtests.
Results: The results showed a significant difference between MS and HC in the global-CPS (p=.01). Considering the CPS of the BRB subtests, we found a significant difference between MS and HC on the Selective Reminding Test - Delayed (SRT-D; p=.01) and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT; p=.006).
Conclusions: Despite this group of MS patients did not reach the diagnosis of CI at time of MS diagnosis, we found a significant decrease in their cognitive performance as compared with the HC group either at a global level, or in specific cognitive domains, i.e., verbal long-term memory (SRT-D) and information processing speed (SDMT). These results suggest that a more sensitive approach can improve the detection of slight impaired cognitive performance, already present at the time of MS diagnosis, earlier the formal diagnosis of CI. Advanced technological tools are needed to overcome the limitation of classic neuropsychological testing of MS patients in detecting impaired cognitive performance.
Disclosure: Massimiliano Calabrese received honoraria for research or speaking from Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Biogen Idec, Bayer, Novartis Pharma and funds for travel from Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva, Novartis Pharma, Roche, and Bayer.
All the other authors have nothing to disclose.
Abstract: EP1549
Type: Poster Sessions
Abstract Category: Pathology and pathogenesis of MS - Neuropsychology
Introduction: Cognitive impairment (CI) affects a large proportion of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients, but the clinical attention to neuropsychological aspects usually begins too late, when CI is, unfortunately, already evident also without formal testing.
Aim: To assess cognitive performance of a group of MS patients without diagnosis of formal CI at the time of MS diagnosis compared with a group of matched healthy controls (HC).
Methods: Twenty-seven MS patients with relapsing-remitting (RR) course (8 CIS and 19 RRMS, 21 F, Age: 35.6±10.9, Education: 14.0±2.2, Disease duration: 3.2±4.0) and 27 matched HC were tested with the Brief Repeatable Battery (BRB; Rao et al., 1990). First, we have ensured that all MS patients had no CI according to the widely accepted classical approach (0 or 1 subtest under the cut-off score of normative data). Second, we assigned a “cognitive performance score” (CPS) considering the z-scores of each subtest of the BRB (the higher the value, the higher the cognitive performance). Third, with the same approach, we also calculated a global CPS (global-CPS) as the sum of each CPS of the BRB subtests.
Results: The results showed a significant difference between MS and HC in the global-CPS (p=.01). Considering the CPS of the BRB subtests, we found a significant difference between MS and HC on the Selective Reminding Test - Delayed (SRT-D; p=.01) and the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT; p=.006).
Conclusions: Despite this group of MS patients did not reach the diagnosis of CI at time of MS diagnosis, we found a significant decrease in their cognitive performance as compared with the HC group either at a global level, or in specific cognitive domains, i.e., verbal long-term memory (SRT-D) and information processing speed (SDMT). These results suggest that a more sensitive approach can improve the detection of slight impaired cognitive performance, already present at the time of MS diagnosis, earlier the formal diagnosis of CI. Advanced technological tools are needed to overcome the limitation of classic neuropsychological testing of MS patients in detecting impaired cognitive performance.
Disclosure: Massimiliano Calabrese received honoraria for research or speaking from Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Biogen Idec, Bayer, Novartis Pharma and funds for travel from Sanofi-Genzyme, Merck-Serono, Biogen Idec, Teva, Novartis Pharma, Roche, and Bayer.
All the other authors have nothing to disclose.