Jack Cotter, Nethmi Vithanage, Shuna Colville, Dawn Lyle, Denise Cranley, Francesca Cormack, Jennifer H. Barnett, Katy Murray, Suvankar Pal
Abstract
Cognitive dysfunction is present in up to 70% of patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and has been reported at all stages and in all subtypes of the disease. These deficits have been reported across a variety of cognitive domains, but are generally under-recognized and incompletely evaluated in routine clinical practice. The aim of this study was to investigate the spectrum of cognitive impairment in patients with MS presenting to a specialist MS clinic using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery (CANTAB), administered on a touchscreen platform. Ninety MS patients completed computerized CANTAB tasks assessing working memory, executive function, processing speed, attention, and episodic memory. Scores were adjusted for age, sex, and level of education and classified as normal or impaired based on comparison with a large normative data pool. We also investigated the impact of clinical and demographic variables which could potentially influence cognitive performance including patient educational level (a proxy for cognitive reserve), disease status (duration, course, and severity of MS), and depression. CANTAB testing detected cognitive impairment in 40 patients (44% of the sample). The most frequently impaired domain was executive function, present in 55% of cognitively impaired individuals. Disease duration and severity were significantly associated with performance across various cognitive domains. Patients with depressive symptoms were also more likely to exhibit impaired processing speed. Results from this study confirm that cognitive impairment is common and occurs across a range of domains among MS patients attending routine clinical visits. CANTAB tasks provide a sensitive and practical approach to cognitive testing in MS patients as part of a holistic patient assessment.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 19. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 18 July 2018.
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#1,662,692
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#37,960
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Outputs of similar age from Frontiers in Neurology
#18
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Altmetric has tracked 23,045,021 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 92nd percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 11,952 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a little more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 7.3. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 94% of its peers.
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We're also able to compare this research output to 289 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 93% of its contemporaries.
