This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Cognitive Disorders  • Multiple Sclerosis/ Demyelinating Disease  • Immunologic Disorders  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

Nathan P. Staff, MD, PhD; Claudia F. Lucchinetti, MD; B. Mark Keegan, MD, FRCPC

Arch Neurol. 2009;66(9):1139-1143.

Objective  To describe the characteristics of multiple sclerosis (MS) presenting with severe cognitive impairment as its primary disabling manifestation.

Design  Retrospective case series.

Setting  Tertiary referral center.

Patients  Patients were identified through the Mayo Clinic data retrieval system (1996-2008) with definite MS (McDonald criteria) and severe cognitive impairment as their primary neurological symptom without accompanying significant MS-related impairment or alternative diagnosis for cognitive dysfunction. Twenty-three patients meeting inclusion criteria were compared regarding demographics, clinical course, and radiological features.

Main Outcome Measures  Demographic, clinical, and radiological characteristics of the disease.

Results  Twelve patients were men. The median age of the first clinical symptom suggestive of central nervous system demyelination was 33 years, and severe MS-related cognitive impairment developed at a median age of 39 years. Cognitive impairment could be dichotomized as subacute fulminant (n = 9) or chronic progressive (n = 14) in presentation, which corresponded to subsequent relapsing or progressive MS courses. Study patients commonly exhibited psychiatric (65%), mild cerebellar (57%), and cortical symptoms and signs (eg, seizure, aphasia, apraxia) (39%). Fourteen of 21 (67%), where documented, smoked cigarettes. Brain magnetic resonance imaging demonstrated diffuse cerebral atrophy in 16 and gadolinium-enhancing lesions in 11. Asymptomatic spinal cord magnetic resonance imaging lesions were present in 12 of 16 patients (75%). Immunomodulatory therapies were generally ineffective in improving these patients.

Conclusions  We describe patients with MS whose clinical phenotype is characterized by severe cognitive dysfunction and prominent cortical and psychiatric signs presenting as a subacute fulminant or chronic progressive clinical course. Cigarette smokers may be overrepresented in this phenotype.

Author Affiliations: Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota.

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?