scholarly journals Patterns of Cognitive Dysfunction in Progressive MS

2013 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 259-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Connick ◽  
Siddharthan Chandran ◽  
Thomas H. Bak

Background:Progressive MS is associated with a high frequency of cognitive impairment. However, it is not clear to what extent this reflects global dysfunction, or independent deficits in specific functions.Objective:To characterise patterns of cognitive impairment in progressive MS on a multi-dimensional cognitive assessment tool well established in neurodegenerative diseases.Methods:Patients with secondary (SPMS;n= 60) and primary progressive MS (PPMS;n= 28) were assessed using the Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination-Revised (ACE-R) multi-dimensional cognitive assessment scale. Independent dimensions of impairment and their relative contribution to the overall burden of cognitive dysfunction were then determined by factor analysis.Results:Two independent dimensions of impairment were seen: frontal-executive (attention, verbal fluency, recall) on one hand, and language and visuospatial functions on the other. These accounted for 55% and 45% respectively of the variance not explained by a global influence (14.2% and 11.6% respectively of total variance). Isolated language and visuospatial dysfunction was seen in both groups, whereas isolated impairment in frontal-executive functions was underrepresented in SPMS (p= 0.001) and not seen in PPMS patients (p= 0.040).Conclusions:In addition to a prominent global influence on cognitive performance, patients with progressive MS commonly exhibit language and visuospatial deficits. Evaluation of these abilities should therefore be included in clinical assessment of cognition in progressive MS.

Author(s):  
Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi ◽  
Maryam Sadeghi ◽  
Mahdiyeh Khanbagi ◽  
Chris Kalafatis ◽  
Seyed Massood Nabavi

Abstract Background Cognitive impairment is common in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Accurate and repeatable measures of cognition have the potential to be used as markers of disease activity. Methods We developed a 5-minute computerized test to measure cognitive dysfunction in patients with MS. The proposed test – named the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) – is self-administered and language-independent. 91 MS patients and 83 healthy controls (HC) took part in Substudy 1, in which each participant took the ICA test and the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS). We assessed ICA’s test-retest reliability, its correlation with BICAMS, its sensitivity to discriminate patients with MS from the HC group, and its accuracy in detecting cognitive dysfunction. In Substudy 2, we recruited 48 MS patients, 38 of which had received an 8-week physical and cognitive rehabilitation programme and 10 MS patients who did not. We examined the association between the level of serum neurofilament light (NfL) in these patients and their ICA scores and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) scores pre- and post-rehabilitation. Results The ICA demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (r=0.94), with no learning bias, and showed a high level of convergent validity with BICAMS. The ICA was sensitive in discriminating the MS patients from the HC group, and demonstrated high accuracy (AUC = 95%) in discriminating cognitively normal from cognitively impaired participants. Additionally, we found a strong association (r=-0.79) between ICA score and the level of NfL in MS patients before and after rehabilitation. Conclusions The ICA has the potential to be used as a digital marker of cognitive impairment and to monitor response to therapeutic interventions. In comparison to standard cognitive tools for MS, the ICA is shorter in duration, does not show a learning bias, and is independent of language.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi ◽  
Maryam Sadeghi ◽  
Mahdiyeh Khanbagi ◽  
Chris Kalafatis ◽  
Seyed Massood Nabavi

Abstract Background Cognitive impairment is common in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). Accurate and repeatable measures of cognition have the potential to be used as markers of disease activity. Methods We developed a 5-minute computerized test to measure cognitive dysfunction in patients with MS. The proposed test – named the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA) – is self-administered and language-independent. 91 MS patients and 83 healthy controls (HC) took part in Substudy 1, in which each participant took the ICA test and the Brief International Cognitive Assessment for MS (BICAMS). We assessed ICA’s test-retest reliability, its correlation with BICAMS, its sensitivity to discriminate patients with MS from the HC group, and its accuracy in detecting cognitive dysfunction. In Substudy 2, we recruited 48 MS patients, 38 of which had received an 8-week physical and cognitive rehabilitation programme and 10 MS patients who did not. We examined the association between the level of serum neurofilament light (NfL) in these patients and their ICA scores and Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT) scores pre- and post-rehabilitation. Results The ICA demonstrated excellent test-retest reliability (r=0.94), with no learning bias, and showed a high level of convergent validity with BICAMS. The ICA was sensitive in discriminating the MS patients from the HC group, and demonstrated high accuracy (AUC = 95%) in discriminating cognitively normal from cognitively impaired participants. Additionally, we found a strong association (r=-0.79) between ICA score and the level of NfL in MS patients before and after rehabilitation. Conclusions The ICA has the potential to be used as a digital marker of cognitive impairment and to monitor response to therapeutic interventions. In comparison to standard cognitive tools for MS, the ICA is shorter in duration, does not show a learning bias, and is independent of language.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. e000580
Author(s):  
Sudha Raghunath ◽  
Yifat Glikmann-Johnston ◽  
Eric Morand ◽  
Julie C Stout ◽  
Alberta Hoi

ObjectivesCognitive dysfunction in SLE is common and associated with significant morbidity but is currently underdetected. Early detection requires the use of screening tests, as formal diagnostic cognitive testing is time-consuming. This study aims to evaluate the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) as a screening tool for cognitive dysfunction in SLE.MethodsPatients with SLE (n=95) and demographically matched healthy control participants (n=48) underwent cognitive testing using the 1-hour neuropsychiatric test battery recommended by the American College of Rheumatology for use in SLE and the MoCA. We used regression analyses to determine associations between MoCA and cognitive test scores. We assessed several MoCA cut-offs for predicting cognitive impairment in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value. Receiver operating curve analyses were used to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the MoCA cut-off thresholds.ResultsWe found a significant correlation between MoCA score and 9 of the 10 cognitive endpoints studied (all p<0.001). Receiver operating curve analysis suggested that a MoCA cut-off of <27 had highest diagnostic accuracy across the cognitive impairment definitions (area under the curve 0.76–0.78). Using a screening cut-off of <28, the MoCA had sensitivity of 83%–94% and specificity of 46%–59%, depending on the impairment definition used.ConclusionsThe MoCA correlates strongly with cognitive test results in SLE and has sufficient sensitivity for use as a screening tool with a cut-off of <28 as the optimal threshold. This tool can be incorporated into clinical practice for screening for cognitive dysfunction in SLE.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seyed-Mahdi Khaligh-Razavi ◽  
Sina Habibi ◽  
Maryam Sadeghi ◽  
Haniye Marefat ◽  
Mahdiyeh Khanbagi ◽  
...  

AbstractVarious mental disorders are accompanied by some degree of cognitive impairment. Particularly in neurodegenerative disorders, cognitive impairment is the phenotypical hallmark of the disease. Effective, accurate and timely cognitive assessment is key to early diagnosis of this family of mental disorders. Current standard-of-care techniques for cognitive assessment are primarily paper-based, and need to be administered by a healthcare professional; they are additionally language and education-dependent and typically suffer from a learning bias. These tests are thus not ideal for large-scale pro-active cognitive screening and disease progression monitoring. We developed the Integrated Cognitive Assessment (ICA), a 5-minute computerized cognitive assessment tool based on a rapid visual categorization task, in which a series of carefully selected natural images of varied difficulty are presented to participants. Overall 448 participants, across a wide age-range with different levels of education took the ICA test. We compared participants’ ICA test results with a variety of standard pen-and-paper tests that are routinely used to assess cognitive performance. ICA had excellent test-retest reliability, and was significantly correlated with all the reference cognitive tests used here, demonstrating ICA’s ability as one unified test that can assess various cognitive domains.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pegah Hafiz ◽  
Kamilla Woznica Miskowiak ◽  
Lars Vedel Kessing ◽  
Andreas Elleby Jespersen ◽  
Kia Obenhausen ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Persistent cognitive impairment is prevalent in unipolar and bipolar disorders and is associated with decreased quality of life and psychosocial dysfunction. The screen for cognitive impairment in psychiatry (SCIP) test is a validated paper-and-pencil instrument for the assessment of cognition in affective disorders. However, there is no digital cognitive screening tool for the brief and accurate assessment of cognitive impairments in this patient group. OBJECTIVE In this paper, we present the design process and feasibility study of the internet-based cognitive assessment tool (ICAT) that is designed based on the cognitive tasks of the SCIP. The aims of this feasibility study were to perform the following tasks among healthy individuals: (1) evaluate the usability of the ICAT, (2) investigate the feasibility of the ICAT as a patient-administered cognitive assessment tool, and (3) examine the performance of automatic speech recognition (ASR) for the assessment of verbal recall. METHODS The ICAT was developed in a user-centered design process. The cognitive measures of the ICAT were immediate and delayed recall, working memory, and psychomotor speed. Usability and feasibility studies were conducted separately with 2 groups of healthy individuals (N=21 and N=19, respectively). ICAT tests were available in the English and Danish languages. The participants were asked to fill in the post study system usability questionnaire (PSSUQ) upon completing the ICAT test. Verbal recall in the ICAT was assessed using ASR, and the performance evaluation criterion was word error rate (WER). A Pearson 2-tailed correlation analysis significant at the .05 level was applied to investigate the association between the SCIP and ICAT scores. RESULTS The overall psychometric factors of PSSUQ for both studies gave scores above 4 (out of 5). The analysis of the feasibility study revealed a moderate to strong correlation between the total scores of the SCIP and ICAT (r=0.63; P=.009). There were also moderate to strong correlations between the SCIP and ICAT subtests for immediate verbal recall (r=0.67; P=.002) and psychomotor speed (r=0.71; P=.001). The associations between the respective subtests for working memory, executive function, and delayed recall, however, were not statistically significant. The corresponding WER for English and Danish responses were 17.8% and 6.3%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The ICAT is the first digital screening instrument modified from the SCIP using Web-based technology and ASR. There was good accuracy of the ASR for verbal memory assessment. The moderate correlation between the ICAT and SCIP scores suggests that the ICAT is a valid tool for assessing cognition, although this should be confirmed in a larger study with greater statistical power. Taken together, the ICAT seems to be a valid Web-based cognitive assessment tool that, after some minor modifications and further validation, may be used to screen for cognitive impairment in clinical settings.


2020 ◽  
Vol 49 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. i34-i36
Author(s):  
J Houghton ◽  
A Nickinson ◽  
S Nduwayo ◽  
B Bridgwood ◽  
C Pepper ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction Single-centre studies have shown a high prevalence of undiagnosed cognitive impairment in patients undergoing vascular surgery. The aim of this meta-analysis was to estimate the pooled prevalence of cognitive impairment in vascular surgery patients. Methods A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed of studies reporting cognitive impairment in vascular surgery patients (PROSPERO registration: CRD42019134684). Databases searched included: Medline, Embase, Emcare, CINAHL, PsychINFO and Scopus. Studies were excluded if they: did not use a validated cognitive assessment tool, included patients with asymptomatic or sub-threshold (for treatment) disease, or excluded patients with cognitive impairment. Quality of included studies was assessed using Newcastle-Ottawa scores (NOS), risk of bias was assessed using the ROBINS-E tool, and quality of evidence assessed using GRADE criteria. A pooled estimate of prevalence was calculated using the inverse-variance method separately for carotid artery disease (CAD), lower extremity arterial disease (LEAD), and studies including patients with multiple vascular surgery presentations. Data were pooled using random effects models and estimated prevalence presented with 95% confidence intervals (95%CI). Subgroup analyses were performed by cognitive assessment tool used. Authors of 24 studies meeting inclusion criteria that did not report numbers of cognitively impaired patients were contacted to enable inclusion: responses are awaited. Results After de-duplication of search results, 7,169 records were screened and 11 studies (911 patients) included in the meta-analysis. Nine studies were deemed high quality (NOS ≥7) however 8 studies had a serious risk of bias. Only one study explicitly stated provision for recruiting patients without capacity. Six different tools were used to assess cognitive function (MoCA, MMSE, ACE-R, HDS-R, Mini-Cog and a global cognitive score). Two studies found an association of cognitive impairment with post-op delirium whilst one did not, and a further study showed an association with increased length of stay. Pooled estimate of prevalence of cognitive impairment in CAD patients was 38% (95%CI 17%, 62%; 7 studies), and in “vascular surgery patients” was 61% (95%CI 47%, 74%, 3 studies). Only one study reported prevalence of cognitive impairment in LEAD patients alone of 19% (95%CI 14%, 24%). Quality of evidence was moderate to very low. Conclusions Cognitive impairment is highly prevalent in vascular surgery patients highlighting the need for close collaboration between vascular surgeons and geriatricians.


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