67. Domain-Specific and Global Cognitive Impairment in Multiple Sclerosis Patients Based on Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery

• Published in: Multiple sclerosis and related disorders 2024-12, Vol.92
• Main Authors: Sahebari, Sepideh Seyedi, Talebi, Mahnaz, Naseri, Amirreza
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2211-0348
• DOI: 10.1016/j.msard.2024.106028

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system (CNS). Several findings show that cognitive impairment in the early stages of the disease may appear as the first symptom or MS. Cognitive disorders can affect up to 70% of patients and are present in 40-20% of patients in the early stages of the disease. Memory, processing speed, attention, visuospatial and executive unctions are the cognitive domains which are mostly impaired in MS patients. In this cross-sectional study, 124 MS patients who visited the outpatient neurology clinics of Tabriz University of Medical Sciences between 2022-2023 were included. CANTAB was used for cognitive evaluation of the patients. In addition to motor Screening Task (MOT), four nonverbal cognitive subtests from the CANTAB, paired-associate learning (PAL), rapid visual information processing (RVP), reaction time (RTI), and the Spatial Working Memory test (SWM) were used. Impaired functions in at least 3 domains were defined as cognitive Impairment. The statistical analysis was done through 23th version of SPSS. Among 124 MS patients with a median age of 31 (26.25 – 37.75) years old, 93 (75%) of them were female 49 (39.5%) of them were cognitively impaired. The disease phenotype was RRMS in 112 (90.3%) of patients. In terms of sex, there wasn't any significant difference between the two groups of cognitively impaired (females: 40 (81.6%)) and cognitively intact patients (females: 53 (70.7%)) (p-value: 0.16). there was a significant difference in age of patients between the two groups (cognitively impaired: 37 (24 – 44), cognitively not impaired: 28 (24 – 34.5), p-value