ISOKINETIC MUSCLE STRENGTH AND ITS ASSOCIATION WITH NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL CAPACITY IN CIRRHOTIC ALCOHOLICS

Alcoholic cirrhotics (n = 49), nonalcoholic cirrhotics (n = 42), and n ormal controls (n = 50) were compared on measures of isokinetic muscle strength and neuropsychological capacity. Alcoholic cirrhotics were d eficient on measures of eccentric and concentric muscle movements, com pared with normal controls but were not different from nonalcoholic ci rrhotics. Nor were differences observed between the two cirrhotic grou ps on neuropsychological tests of cognitive and psychomotor capacity, suggesting that cirrhosis rather than alcoholism per se is responsible for the manifest deficits, Psychomotor capacity correlated negatively with isokinetic strength in cirrhotic subjects, These findings sugges t that muscle weakness, due either directly to advanced liver disease or mediated by subclinical hepatic encephalopathy, accounts for a port ion of the variance on the neuropsychological test performance of cirr hotic alcoholics.