Sinay Vladimiro, Perez Akly Manuel, Zanga Gisela, Ciardi Celina, Racosta Juan M
Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO), Argentina/Institute of Neurosciences, Favaloro Foundation, Argentina
Hospital Dr César Milstein, Argentina.
Mult Scler. 2015 Jun;21(7):945-52. doi: 10.1177/1352458514554054. Epub 2014 Oct 24.
For many years, cognitive impairment has been established as a well-known symptom of multiple sclerosis. Moreover, we know that it was present even at the beginning of the disease.
In this case-control study, we decided to evaluate whether there is an impairment of cognitive functions even before onset in those patients who will eventually suffer from multiple sclerosis.
We evaluated the overall school performance, and particularly school performance in math and language in a group of patients who would later develop the disease and we compared our findings with a control group.
We found that school performance was poorer in subjects who were to become patients. And we found that the later the start of the first symptom, the better the qualifications.
Testing a premorbid cognitive deficit by a validated indirect evaluation method allowed us to verify that there was evidence of neurological compromise even before a clinical diagnosis or the completion of the first magnetic resonance imaging in patients who would then suffer from multiple sclerosis.
多年来，认知障碍一直被认为是多发性硬化症的一个众所周知的症状。此外，我们知道在疾病初期它就已存在。
在这项病例对照研究中，我们决定评估那些最终会患上多发性硬化症的患者在发病前是否存在认知功能损害。
我们评估了一组后来会患上该疾病的患者的整体学业成绩，特别是数学和语言方面的学业成绩，并将我们的研究结果与一个对照组进行了比较。
我们发现未来会患病的受试者的学业成绩较差。并且我们发现首次出现症状的时间越晚，成绩越好。
通过一种经过验证的间接评估方法测试病前认知缺陷，使我们能够证实，在那些后来会患上多发性硬化症的患者中，甚至在临床诊断或首次磁共振成像完成之前，就有神经功能受损的证据。
