Does the Disease Course or Treatment Type have Impact on Executive Functions and Cognition in Multiple Sclerosis Patients? A Clinical and 3 Tesla MRI study.

Background: Executive dysfunction in multiple sclerosis varies in relation to the course of the disease and therapy and could be correlated with 3- tesla MRI. Objective: Compare aspects of executive dysfunction and memory in RRMS and SPMS and interferon and non interferon treated patients correlating findings with 3 -tesla MRI brain images. Methods: Thirty MS patients were included [25 RRMS and 5SPMS] 16 of them receive interferon were subjected to neurological, EDSS, fatigue severity scale, Beck depression Inventory assessment. In addition, neuropsychological assessment of memory, learning and executive dysfunctions. A 3- tesla MRI brain imaging within 48 hours of the assessment. Ten healthy age, sex and educational level matched controls were selected for comparison of the psychometric results. Results: Patients with RRMS showed no significant change in memory tests while those with SPMS showed significant worse performance in the executive functions test .Patients on interferon therapy showed preserved good performance in verbal and visuospatial learning when compared with the non treated patients. The corpus callosum thickness was significantly correlated with processing speed, verbal learning and verbal fluency. The brain parenchyma was significantly correlated with ability to display flexibility in the face of changing schedules. The 3^rd ventricle width was significantly negatively correlated with visuospatial learning. Conclusion: Patients with MS exhibit different patterns of affection of their executive functions and memory in different courses of the disease. Treatment with interferon was associated with preserved abilities in specific aspects of executive dysfunctions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]