Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry 2007;78:1387-1389
SHORT REPORTS
Relation between cognitive dysfunction and reduced vital capacity in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis
1 Department of Neurology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea
2 Department of Neurology, Seoul Boramae Hospital, Seoul, Korea
Correspondence to:
Dr K-W Lee, Department of Neurology, Seoul National University College of Medicine, 28 Yon-Gun Dong, Chong-Ro, Seoul, Korea; kwoo{at}plaza.snu.ac.kr
Background: Many patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with cognitive impairment have fronto-temporal dysfunction. Whereas in some patients with ALS the fronto-temporal dysfunction is undoubtedly due to the degenerative process associated with the disease, in others dysfunction cannot be accounted for by an irreversible degenerative process alone, as it also appears to involve a reversible process. We hypothesised that reduced vital capacity can be a key contributor to the fronto-temporal dysfunction observed in patients with ALS.
Objective: To investigate the association between fronto-temporal dysfunction and reduced vital capacity in ALS.
Methods: 16 consecutive patients who conformed to a diagnosis of definite or probable ALS (El escorial criteria) were grouped by vital capacity, and their clinical characteristics and cognitive functions, including disease duration, attention, executive function and memory, were measured.
Results: Patients with a reduced vital capacity performed significantly poorer in memory retention (p = 0.028), retrieval efficacy (p = 0.003), spoken verbal fluency (p = 0.03) and spoken verbal fluency indexes (p = 0.016) than those with a normal vital capacity.
Conclusion: The fronto-temporal dysfunction in ALS might be attributable to potentially reversible secondary effects associated with reduced vital capacity, as well as to the primary degenerative process.
Abbreviations: ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; ALSFRSr, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Functional Rating Scale Revised; FVC, forced vital capacity; MMSE, Mini-Mental State Examination
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- web only table
-
All Versions of this Article:
jnnp.2006.111195v1
78/12/1387 most recent - Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
