Frontal lobe abnormalities on MRS correlate with poor letter fluency in ALS

Colin Quinn, Lauren Elman, Leo McCluskey, Katelin Hoskins, Chafic Karam, John H. Woo, Harish Poptani, Sumei Wang, Sanjeev Chawla, Scott E. Kasner, Murray Grossman

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

33 Scopus citations

Abstract

Objective: To examine whether frontal lobe abnormalities on magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) correlate with poor letter fluency (LF). Methods: Twenty-five patients with ALS (20 with definite, probable, or possible ALS and 5 with progressive muscular atrophy) performed an LF task, involving F word generation in 1 minute, and underwent MRS. Comparisons were made between patients with ALS with impaired LF and unimpaired LF based on an empirically derived cutoff score. A Spearman correlation was performed between the patient's N-acetyl acetate/creatinine- phosphocreatinine ratio (NAA/Cr) and the number of F words generated. Results: LF was impaired in 50% of patients with ALS. Patients with impaired LF had reduced NAA/Cr in the DLPFC compared with those with unimpaired LF (p = 0.007). There was a significant correlation between LF and NAA/Cr in the DLPFC (r = 0.51, p = 0.0009). The ALS Functional Rating Scale score, clinical region of motor onset, and disease category had no effect on LF or NAA/Cr in the DLPFC. Conclusions: A reduced NAA/Cr in the DLPFC of patients with ALS is a marker of neuronal dysfunction and correlates with impaired performance on a clinical measure of executive function.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)583-588
Number of pages6
JournalNeurology
Volume79
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 7 2012
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology

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