title: Cognitive Impairment in Chinese Patients with Sporadic Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  It has reached a consensus that patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) could display cognitive impairment characterized by executive dysfunction or even dementia, but cognitive spectrum of Chinese patients with ALS still waits to be documented.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 106 incident patients with sporadic ALS were enrolled and comprehensive neuropsychological tests covering memory, executive function, attention, language, and visuospatial function were administered to them. Neuropsychological performances of 76 age- and education- matched healthy controls were used for the purpose of classification and comparison.
  
  
  RESULTS
  106 patients were categorized into 4 subtypes:84 (79.2%) ALS with normal cognition (ALS-NC), 12 (11.3%) ALS with executive cognitive impairment (ALS-ECI), 5 (4.7%) ALS with non-executive cognitive impairment (ALS-NECI), and 5 (4.7%) ALS with frontotemporal lobe degeneration (ALS-FTLD). Under the same criteria, 2 (2.6%) and 1 (1.3%) healthy controls were diagnosed as ECI and NECI, respectively. The proportion of ECI was significantly higher in non-demented ALS than that in healthy controls, but it was not for NECI. Patients with ALS-FTLD had significantly severer bulbar function and older age than those with ALS-NC.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Comorbid FTLD occurred in around 5% of Chinese sporadic ALS cases. Different genetic background and unique age distribution of Chinese ALS patients might be the reasons for the relatively low rate of comorbid FTLD. Cognitive dysfunction, predominant but not exclusive in executive area, was present in around 16% of non-demented ALS patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China; Neurosciences Center, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Liying
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Mingsheng
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Caiyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Junfang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Fang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000690:Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D044466:Asian People; D003072:Cognition Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003704:Dementia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged