Patterns of Cognitive Impairment in Secondary Progressive Stable Phase of Multiple Sclerosis: Correlations with MRI Findings

• Published in: European neurology Vol. 45; no. 1; pp. 11 - 18
• Main Authors: Nocentini, U., Rossini, P.M., Carlesimo, G.A., Graceffa, A., Grasso, M.G., Lupoi, D., Oliveri, M., Orlacchio, A., Pozzilli, C., Rizzato, B., Caltagirone, C.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel, Switzerland Karger 01.01.2001; S. Karger AG
• Subjects: Adult; Biological and medical sciences; Cognition Disorders - pathology; Female; Humans; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Multiple Sclerosis - pathology; Multiple Sclerosis - psychology; Multiple sclerosis and variants. Guillain barré syndrome and other inflammatory polyneuropathies. Leukoencephalitis; Neurology; Neuropsychological Tests; Original Paper; Multiple sclerosis; Cognitive function; MRI; Secondary progressive; Performance evaluation; Human; Nervous system diseases; Secondary; Cognitive disorder; Psychometrics; Cognition; Nuclear magnetic resonance imaging; Inflammatory disease; Progressive; Central nervous system disease; Medical imagery; Complication
• ISSN: 0014-3022; 1421-9913
• DOI: 10.1159/000052083

Cognitive impairment is commonly described in multiple sclerosis (MS), but conflicting results have been reported about its pattern by previous studies focused on heterogeneous patient groups. The aim of this study was to investigate the cognitive skills of a homogeneous group of secondary progressive MS patients, and to examine the relationship of this impairment to MRI parameters. Forty-four MS patients underwent a series of neuropsychological tests devised to explore the main cognitive domains, and T1- and T2-weighted brain MRI. Results showed the presence of deficits of attention, memory, planning abilities, problem-solving and conceptual reasoning (frontal functions) in a subgroup of MS patients. Correlations between the performance in some ‘frontal’ tests and the extent of frontal lobe MRI lesional area were present, but rather unspecific, the same performance being also correlated with the nonfrontal lesional area. These findings suggest that in MS, overall macroscopic and microscopic brain damage is more important than the corresponding focal brain disease, even in determining deficits of selective cognitive domains.