Evaluation of Cognitive Impairment After Posterior Cerebral Artery Infarction

OBJECTIVE: The assessment of cognitive impairment after posterior cerebral artery (PCA) ischemic infarction has not been well documanted. MATERIAL and METHODS: Twenty-six oriented, cooperated and non-aphasic consecutive patients with right or left (10/16) PCA infarction who were hospitalized between the years 2010-2012 were enrolled to the study. The branches of PSA were dealt as cortical and subcortical infarct under two groups. Short mental state examination test and cognitive test battery (CTB) created from Wechsler memory scale (WMS), word-catogory association test and similarity test parameters were applied to the patients at the first week and third month follow-up visits and the groups were compared with each other. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in catogory association test and total score of cognitive test battery (CTB) in right PCA group, also there was a significant improvement in catogory association test in left PCA group at the first and 3th month evaluations. At the first month evaluations, total score of CTB of the subcortical segment PCA infarcts are lower than the cortical segment PCA infarcts. At the 3th month evaluations the scores increased in the both groups; but the scores in the subcortical PCA infarcts were lower than the cortical PCA infarcts. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that there was a cognitive impairment in patients with PCA infarction. The impairment in verbal fluency which was showed by catogory association test was found more prominent in the second evaluation. Further studies including functional imaging methods and cortical function tests are needed

Auditory event related delta responses are reduced in patients with mild cognitive impairment

Kurt, Pınar (Arel Author)Background. Event-related oscillations (ERO) may provide a useful tool for the identification of cognitive deficits in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In the present study, we investigate peak-to-peak amplitude of auditory eventrelated delta oscillations of MCI subjects. Method. The study included twenty-two consecutive patients with MCI recruited in neurology clinic and 21 age- and education-matched normal elderly controls. A classical auditory oddball paradigm was used in the experiments. EEG was recorded from F3, Fz, F4, C3, Cz, C4, P3, Pz, P4, O1, Oz, and O2 locations. The maximum peak-to-peak amplitudes for each subject's averaged delta response (0.5-2.2 Hz) were measured. Results. The amplitudes between groups differed significantly at the frontal and mid-centroparietal locations. ANOVA on delta responses revealed a significant effect for groups (F(1.41) = 4.84, P = 0.033), indicating a larger delta response for healthy controls than MCI subjects. Post hoc comparisons revealed that peak-to-peak delta response was significantly larger for healthy controls than for MCI over electrode sites F3, Fz, F4, Cz, C4, and Pz. Discussion. Event-related delta frequency band seems to be the most affected oscillatory response in cognitive impairment due to AD. Therefore, it deserves to be investigated as a candidate electrophysiological biomarker in further studies