Cognitive dysfunction associated with aluminum hydroxide-induced macrophagic myofasciitis: A reappraisal of neuropsychological profile

• Published in: Journal of inorganic biochemistry Vol. 181; no. 4; pp. 132 - 138
• Main Authors: Aoun Sebaiti, Mehdi, Kauv, Paul, Charles-Nelson, Anaïs, Van Der Gucht, Axel, Blanc-Durand, Paul, Itti, Emmanuel, Gherardi, Romain K., Bachoud-Levi, Anne-Catherine, Authier, François Jérôme
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.04.2018; Elsevier
• Subjects: Aluminum; Attention; Dichotic listening; Dysexecutive syndrome; Episodic memory; Life Sciences; Macrophagic myofasciitis; Dysexecutive syndrome; Aluminum; Episodic memory; Dichotic listening; Attention; Macrophagic myofasciitis
• ISSN: 0162-0134; 1873-3344
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jinorgbio.2017.09.019

Patients with macrophagic myofasciitis (MMF) present with diffuse arthromyalgias, chronic fatigue, and cognitive disorder. Representative features of MMF-associated cognitive dysfunction include attentional dysfunction, dysexecutive syndrome, visual memory deficit and left ear extinction. Our study aims to reevaluate the neuropsychological profile of MMF. 105 unselected consecutive MMF patients were subjected to a neuropsychological battery of screen short term and long-term memory, executive functions, attentional abilities, instrumental functions and dichotic listening. From these results, patients were classified in four different groups: Subsymptomatic patients (n=41) with performance above pathological threshold (−1.65 SD) in all tests; Fronto-subcortical patients (n=31) who showed pathological results at executive functions and selective attention tests; Papezian patients (n=24) who showed pathological results in storage, recognition and consolidation functions for episodic verbal memory, in addition to fronto-subcortical dysfunction; and Extinction patients (n=9) who had a left ear extinction at dichotic listening test in association to fronto-subcortical and papezian dysfunction. In addition, inter-test analysis showed that patients with apparently normal cognitive functions (Subsymptomatic group) performed significantly worse to attention tests compared to others. In conclusion, our study shows that (i) most patients have specific cognitive deficits; (ii) all patients with cognitive deficit have impairment of executive functions and selective attention; (iii) patients without measurable cognitive deficits display significant weakness in attention; (iv) episodic memory impairment affects verbal, but not visual, memory; (v) none of the patients show an instrumental dysfunction. Neuropsychological evaluation allows stratification of macrophagic myofasciitis patients with cognitive complain in four groups of growing severity (1→4) with a continuum between them. [Display omitted] •Most patients with macrophagic myofasciitis had specific cognitive deficits.•Cognitive impairment mainly affects executive functions and selective attention.•Patients without measurable cognitive deficits displayed weakness in attention.•None of studied patients showed an instrumental dysfunction.