Features of quantitative EEG in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and their relationship with cognitive impairment / 西安交通大学学报(医学版)

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of quantitative electroencephalogram (EEG) in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and their relationship with cognitive impairment. Methods: We recruited 38 patients with ALS and 26 healthy controls. All the patients underwent quantitative EEG examination to obtain the relative power of each frequency band and calculate the slow wave ratio (δ+θ)/(α+β) as comparison indexes. Among them, 27 patients with ALS underwent the ECAS scale examination to assess their cognitive function. At the same time, 25 healthy controls underwent the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Screen (ECAS) to determine the cut-off of scale score. We compared the slow wave ratio in ALS patients with and without cognitive impairment according to the cut-off score. Results: The relative powers of δ and θ bands and slow wave ratios of quantitative EEG in ALS patients were significantly higher than those in healthy controls, and there was no significant difference in relative powers of α and β bands. In the comparison of slow wave ratios in different brain regions, the proportion of slow waves in the bilateral temporal-occipital regions and the right parietal areas was significantly higher than that in healthy controls. The slow wave ratio in the left temporal area was positively correlated with the course of ALS (correlation coefficient 0.405, P=0.05). The ECAS scale screening revealed that 33.3% of ALS patients had cognitive impairment. ALS patients with cognitive impairment had higher slow wave ratios in the frontal and temporal areas than patients without cognitive impairment. The ALS specific item score, ALS non-specific item score and the total score of ECAS were all negatively correlated with the slow wave ratios in the frontal and temporal areas. Conclusion: The changes of EEG activity in patients with ALS are mainly the increase of slow wave activity, which is significant in the temporal, parietal and occipital areas. The slow wave ratios in frontal and temporal areas of ALS patients are correlated with cognitive impairment.