Cognitive performance of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy and incidental calcified neurocysticercosis

Abstract

Objectives: Although chronic calcified neurocysticercosis (NCC) has been considered a major cause of symptomatic epilepsy in developing countries, it can also be an incidental pathological finding in epileptic patients from endemic regions. The mechanisms of brain plasticity occurring in patients with NCC during and after the inflammatory process related to the parasite infection, death, degeneration, and calcification within the host brain might be an independent factor for cognitive impairment in patients with NCC and epilepsy. In order to assess this possibility cognitive performance of patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy related to hippocampal sclerosis (MTLE-HS) with and without NCC was investigated through structured neuropsychological testing. Methods: Cognitive performance of long term MTLE-HS patients with (HS-NCC group, n = 32) and without NCC (HS only, n = 48) was compared. Imbalances between the two groups with respect to clinical, demographic, neuroimaging, and electrophysiological variables were adjusted by linear multiple regression analysis and Bonferroni correction for multiple tests. Results and conclusions: There were no cognitive performance differences between HS-NCC and HS only patients, leading to the conclusion that chronic calcified NCC per se does not aggravate the cognitive performance of patients with long term MTLE-HS.