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Cognitive dysfunction in adult patients with neuromyelitis optica: a systematic review and meta-analysis

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Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate cognitive dysfunction in 24–60-year-old neuromyelitis optica (NMO) patients, demographically matched healthy subjects, and MS patients. We conducted a comprehensive literature review of the PubMed, Medline, EMBASE, CNKI, Wan Fang Date, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library databases from inception to May 2016 for case–control studies that reported cognitive test scores in NMO patients, healthy subjects, and MS patients. Outcome measures were cognitive function evaluations, including performance on attention, language, memory, information processing speed, and executive function tests. The meta-analysis included eight studies. NMO patients performed significantly worse on attention (P < 0.00001), language (P = 0.00008), memory (P = 0.00004), information processing speed (P < 0.00001), and executive function tests (P = 0.00009) than healthy subjects. There were no significant differences in performance between NMO patients and MS patients on these tests. This meta-analysis indicates that NMO patients aged 24–60 years have significantly worse cognitive performance than demographically matched healthy subjects. However, this was comparable to the performance of demographically matched MS patients. There is a need for further rigorous randomized controlled trials with focus on elucidating the underlying mechanism of cognitive dysfunction in NMO patients.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 81471215 and No. 81271211 to Jun Xu).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Non-Coding RNA Center, Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225001, Jiangsu, China

    Hao Meng & Hua Dai

  2. Department of Neurology, Northern Jiangsu People’s Hospital, Yangzhou, 225001, Jiangsu, China

    Hao Meng, Jun Xu, Jiaxing Cheng & Yue Hu

  3. Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine for Prevention and Treatment of Senile Diseases, School of Medicine, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225001, Jiangsu, China

    Jun Xu

  4. Faculty of Life Science and Technology, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, 650500, Yunnan, China

    Chenling Pan & Yuehai Shen

  5. Health Management Center, Northern Jiangsu Poeple’s Hospital, Yangzhou, 225001, Jiangsu, China

    Yin Hong

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  1. Hao Meng
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  2. Jun Xu
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  3. Chenling Pan
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  4. Jiaxing Cheng
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Correspondence to Jun Xu.

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Meng, H., Xu, J., Pan, C. et al. Cognitive dysfunction in adult patients with neuromyelitis optica: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Neurol 264, 1549–1558 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-016-8345-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-016-8345-3

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