ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Researches suggest that transient ischemic attack (TIA)can induce cognitive dysfunction, and cerebral blood flow and its distribution are hypothesized to be closely related to cognitive activities.OBJECTIVE: To investigate the alteration of cognitive function and provide insights into its relations with cerebral perfusion in TIA patients.DESIGN: A case-control study.SETTING: Departments of Geriatrics, Electrophysiology and Magnetic Resonance of Urumqi General Hospital of Lanzhou Military Area Command of Chinese PLA.PARTICIPANTS: Totally 35 male right-handed TIA patients aged 45-78 years with an average of (68.1±8.4) years were selected from the inpatients and outpatients in the Department of Geriatrics, Urumqi General Hospital of Lanzhou Command of Chinese PLA between January 2002 and June 2003. Another 33 healthy right handed male subjects aged 45-77 years with an average of (67.8±8.6) years coming for physical examination were recruited to serve as the control group.METHODS: Patients and control subjects were tested with event-related potentials (ERPs) and the scale of elderly cognitive function (SECF) to examine the orientation, learning and memory, span, recall 1 (association),long-term memory, naming of animals, calculation, classification, copying,language and recall 2 (relation). According to the T score transformation table, the original scores were transformed into T scores relative to the age to eliminate the impact of age, and also into T'score to eliminate the interference by the patients'education, so that cognitive function of the patients could be evaluated with T'score, and the lower the score, the poorer the cognitive function. Cases in the two groups were all tested, and TIA patients were also examined with magnetic resonance angiography (MRA).MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Results of ERPs, SECF and MRA.RESULTS: Of the 35 TIA patients and 33 control subjects all completed the trial. Examination of ERPs reveled significantly prolonged latency of P300 components of ERP in the TIA group [(336.2±34.2) ms] than that in the control group [(311.3±44.2) ms, P ＜ 0.05]. The scores of span, recall 1,long-term memory, naming of animals, calculation, and recall 2 in SECF in TIA group were all lower than those in control group (39.7±11.9 vs 47.4±12.0; 54.5±14.8 vs 61.8±14.5; 61.1±7.8 vs 64.7±1.7; 59.4±11.0 vs 64.7±8.8; 50.0±14.7 vs 58.1±14.2; 44.6±15.4 vs 53.2±17.8, t=4.151 0-7.292 8, P ＜ 0.05-0.01). MRA identified abnormalities in 33 of the 35 TIA patients (94%), manifested mainly by stenosis and occlusion involving the vertebral artery (54%, 19/35), bilateral anterior, middle and posterior cerebral arteries (40% ,28/70;59% ,41/70;47% ,33/70), basilar artery (5.71%, 2/35) and bilateral internal carotid artery (5.71%, 4/70) respectively.CONCLUSION: TIA patients are characterized by prolonged P300 latency with multiple cognitive impairments especially in memory and cerebral artery stenosis and occlusion as shown by MRA, suggests that TIA patients have persistent low cerebral perfusion and frequently, cognitive dysfunction in the presence of local blood supply disorder in the hemispheres.
ABSTRACT
Objective To study the subjective sleep quality in patients with obstructive sleep apnea syndrome(OSAS). Methods Two hundred and seventeen patients with OSAS confirmed by an all-night (7 hrs) polysomnogram(PSG) were evaluated by Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Results According to the testing results of PSQI, 88 subjects (40.5%) were identified as "poor sleepers" (4≤PSQI
ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the change of cognitive function and cerebral blood flow in patients with transient ischemic attack(TIA).Methods 35 patients with TIA and 33 normal controls who matched in sex, age, right handed and education were tested by events related potential(ERP), the scale of elderly cognitive function(SECF) and magnetic resonance angiography(MRA).Results The peak latencies of P 3 components of ERP in the patients were significantly delayed as compared with the control group( P