Disorders of the Nervous System
Author: Lucia Bacigalupe | Email: lucia.bacigalupe@hotmail.com
Lucia Bacigalupe1°, Mastroberti Gloria1°,Aldana Marinangeli1°, Natalia Ciufia1°, Mariana Zarza1°, Lucia Ibarra1°, Lucas Lapalma1°, Ricardo Alonso1°, María Bárbara Eizaguirre1°
1° Multiple Sclerosis University Center (CUEM), Neurology, Ramos Mejia Hospital, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Cognitive fatigability (CF) is considered a way to objectively measure the fatigue symptoms of patients with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS). Aims: Compare the CF in patients and healthy controls (HC). Analyze the association between CF and clinical, cognitive, and demographical variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out. Clinical and cognitive variables were evaluated. This study applied the EDSS, the FSS, the BDI-II, and the complete neuropsychological battery from PwMS. CF was obtained from an index calculated by a difference in the first half and the rest of the PASAT and the SDMT. Parametric and non-parametric statistics were used, p<.05 was considered significant. Results: 140 PwMS and a group of 50 HC were analyzed. Patients presented a mean age of 36.4±9.0 years and mean education of 13.6±3.60 years. The HC showed a mean age of 33.5 4±10.6 years and a mean education of 14.5±4.48 years. No significant differences were found in age (p=.064) and education (p=.134). Statistically significative differences were found between groups in the CF measured by SDMT test (p=.007), being patients the ones who presented a high index of CF. The lineal regression model showed that gender is a predictor variable of the CF measured by the PASAT (p=.017, β=0.206). No association was found between CF measured by SDMT and clinical, cognitive and demographical variables. Conclusion: PwMS presented a higher CF than the HC and that gender could be associated with fatigability.