Neuropsychological Impairment in Patients With Chronic HCV -- Hepatitis C Outreach Project

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Subject: Neuropsychological Impairment in Patients With Chronic HCV

Author:
Hilsabeck, et al (HEPATOLOGY 2002;35:440-446.)

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Date Posted: Sun, August 11 2002, 5:19:29 PDT
In reply to: H. Aaron Aronow,MD Neurology and Internal Medicine USC .. 's message, "Neurological manifestation of HCV" on Sat, May 19 2001, 10:27:06 PDT

Neuropsychological Impairment in Patients With
Chronic Hepatitis C

Robin C. Hilsabeck, William Perry, and Tarek I. Hassanein

Hepatitis C is the most common cause of chronic liver disease in the United States and it
significantly reduces quality of life. The role of cognitive deficits contributing to the mor-bidity
of this disease has not been well characterized. The purpose of this study was to
examine cognitive functioning in patients with chronic hepatitis C and to investigate relationships
among parameters of disease severity and performance on neuropsychological
tests.

Sixty-six patients with chronic hepatitis C and 14 patients with other chronic liver
diseases were administered a brief battery of neuropsychological tests assessing attention,
visuoconstructional ability, learning, memory, and psychomotor speed.

Cognitive impairment
in patients with chronic hepatitis C ranged from 0% on a visuoconstructional task to
82% on a measure of sustained attention and concentration. Test scores of patients with chronic hepatitis C did not differ from those of patients with other chronic liver diseases.

Hence, patients with and without chronic hepatitis C experience cognitive deficits, especially
in tasks requiring attention and psychomotor speed. In addition, there was a significant
relationship between fibrosis stage and test performance, with greater fibrosis associated
with poorer performance. However, both patients with and without cirrhosis exhibited
cognitive dysfunction.

In conclusion, these findings suggest that progressive hepatic injury may result in cognitive problems even before the development of cirrhosis. Future studies
need to determine the effect of this decrease in cognitive function on quality of life.

(HEPATOLOGY 2002;35:440-446.)

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Replies:

Subject	Author	Date
Relationship of HRQL to Treatment Adherence and SVR in CHC Patients	David Bernstein (HEPATOLOGY 2002;35:704-708.)	Sun, August 11 2002, 5:38:49 PDT