Mattarozzi Katia, Campi Claudio, Guarino Maria, Stracciari Andrea
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy.
Metab Brain Dis. 2005 Sep;20(3):243-9. doi: 10.1007/s11011-005-7212-1.
It is well-known that liver cirrhosis is frequently accompanied by a wide range of neuropsychiatric abnormalities, including general and specific cognitive impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate which cognitive functions are selectively compromised in Hepatic Encephalopathy (HE) and to clarify the relationship between clinically overt or nonovert HE and the different forms and degrees of decay in cognitive deficits. Twenty-two patients without overt HE and 12 patients who showed overt HE at the first level of severity, along with matched control subjects, were compared in several cognitive domains. The results showed significant differences in some measures of attention between patients with minimal HE (mHE) and patients with overt HE. There were also notable differences in verbal short-term memory between patients with mHE and healthy subjects. Thus, we can hypothesize that there is a linear diminution in short-term memory and attentional performance starting from healthy patients, moving toward patients with mHE, and finally progressing toward patients with the first grade of overt HE. There are two types of diminution that we noted: between patients with mHE and the overt form, the decline in the attentional domain was more evident, while between healthy subjects and mHE patients, short-term memory showed a more evident decline.
众所周知，肝硬化常伴有多种神经精神异常，包括一般和特定的认知障碍。本研究的目的是调查肝性脑病（HE）中哪些认知功能受到选择性损害，并阐明临床显性或隐性HE与认知缺陷的不同形式和程度衰退之间的关系。在几个认知领域对22名无显性HE的患者、12名在严重程度第一级表现为显性HE的患者以及匹配的对照受试者进行了比较。结果显示，轻度HE（mHE）患者与显性HE患者在某些注意力测量方面存在显著差异。mHE患者与健康受试者在言语短期记忆方面也存在显著差异。因此，我们可以假设，从健康患者开始，到mHE患者，再到显性HE一级患者，短期记忆和注意力表现呈线性下降。我们注意到有两种类型的下降：在mHE患者和显性形式患者之间，注意力领域的下降更为明显，而在健康受试者和mHE患者之间，短期记忆下降更为明显。
