Oddo Silvia, Solís Patricia, Consalvo Damián, Giagante Brenda, Silva Walter, D'Alessio Luciana, Centurión Estela, Saidón Patricia, Kochen Silvia
Epilepsy Center, Neurology Division, Ramos Mejia Hospital, Av. Scalabrini Ortiz 2330 1 degrees E, Capital Federal, CP: 1425, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Epilepsy Behav. 2003 Dec;4(6):717-22. doi: 10.1016/j.yebeh.2003.09.008.
The goal of this study was to assess the cognitive function status in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and hippocampal sclerosis (TLE+HS) to determine their cognitive function profile and to correlate material-specific memory deficits with HS laterality diagnosed by MRI.
Seventy-one patients were assessed with a neuropsychological protocol that includes IQ, attention, handedness, verbal memory, visual memory, language, and the executive function. chi(2) and correlation tests were used.
Memory impairment was found in 46 patients (66%): patients without any memory deficit (n=25), patients with verbal memory deficit (n=21), patients with visual memory deficit (n=17), patients with deficit for both types of memory (n=8). Correlation between MRI lesion and memory was 66%. Language was impaired in 33 patients (46%). Eighteen patients (25%) had a deficit of the executive function.
Patients with TLE+HS presented with a deficit in material-specific episodic memory correlating in large proportion with HS lateralization. We also found language and executive function impairments.
