Patients with chronic focal cerebellar lesions show no cognitive abnormalities in a bedside test.
The aim of the present study was to show whether cognitive deficits are present in chronic cerebellar patients using a self-developed, validated bedside screening test. Twenty-one adults with a history of infarction within the territory of the posterior-inferior (PICA) or the superior cerebellar artery (SCA), and 25 age-, sex-, and education-matched healthy controls participated. Lesion localization was based on individual 3D MRI scans. The test took 10-12 min including subtests of naming, executive functions, attention, figural and verbal memory, reading, long-term memory, mental arithmetic, higher order motor control, and spatial functions. Though individual patients tended to make more errors than controls, neither total error score nor subscores revealed significant group differences. No obvious cognitive deficits appeared to be present in chronic cerebellar patients as assessed by a bedside screening test.
Richter
Stefanie
S
Department of Neurology, University of Duisberg-Essen, Essen, Germany. s.richter@uni-essen.de
Aslan
Bakiye
B
Gerwig
Marcus
M
Wilhelm
Hans
H
Kramer
Silke
S
Todica
Olga
O
Schoch
Beate
B
Dimitrova
Albena
A
Gizewski
Elke R
ER
Thilmann
Alfred F
AF
Timmann
Dagmar
D
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002526:Cerebellar Diseases / Q000150:complications* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002531:Cerebellum / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002908:Chronic Disease; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016555:Matched-Pair Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D019095:Point-of-Care Systems