Article

A total of 30 to 50% of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients
suffer from cognitive disorders. The aim of the study is to characterize these
disorders and to assess semantic memory in non-demented ALS patients. The
secondary aim is to look for a link between disease type and neuropsychological
characteristics. METHOD: Patients were followed in an ALS center in Dijon. The
following neuropsychological tests were used in this study: Folstein test, BREF
test, verbal fluency, Isaac test, GRESEM test and TOP 30 test. RESULTS: Fifteen
ALS patients were included. Nine of them (60%) were suffering from a semantic
memory disorder. There was no correlation between ALS characteristics and the
semantic memory disorder. DISCUSSION: This is the first study to reveal a
semantic memory disorder in ALS. This result accentuates the hypothesis that ALS
and semantic dementia are two phenotypes of the same degenerative process linked
to TDP 43 proteinopathy.
CI - Copyright (c) 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

Langue : ANGLAIS