Similar subcortical pattern of cognitive impairment in AIDS patients with and without dementia

The aim of this study was to develop a series of neuropsychological tests t hat define the cortical and subcortical features of cognitive impairment an d the characteristics of memory in demented and mildly cognitively impaired AIDS patients. We attempted to establish a usable method to assess and det ermine the type and degree of cognitive impairment in individual AIDS patie nts. We examined 53 patients without central nervous system opportunistic infect ions. A short battery included two scales of global efficiency (the Mattis dementia rating scale and the Mini Mental State Examination), a psychomotor speed test, an executive control assessment and explicit memory evaluation . Patients were categorized into four groups based on their score on both t he Mattis dementia rating scale and the DSM-IV criteria: (1) asymptomatic; (2) having AIDS without cognitive impairment: (3) having AIDS with mild cog nitive impairment; and (4) having AIDS dementia. Patients with mildly impai red cognition demonstrated slowed thinking, abnormal initiation and concept ualization, and memory impairment. AIDS dementia patients had slow cr motor activity and memory recall was more severely affected. The short neuropsyc hological battery was able to characterize modified cognitive performances in both, severely and mildly cognitively impaired AIDS patients. The subcor tical pattern of the memory disorder was obvious, regardless of the degree of cognitive impairment.