Diminished Cognitive Performance/Increased Cognitive Impairments Quantified in People with NMOSD

Results of a meta-analysis which compared the cognitive function of people diagnosed with neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (PwNMOSD) and healthy controls (HCs) showed that PwNMOSD demonstrate worse cognitive performance compared to HCs. The study also found an increased prevalence of cognitive impairments among PwNMOSD compared with HCs. These results were presented at the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC).

Researchers conducted a systematic search across PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science to identify relevant studies, and meta-analysis was performed using the random-effect model in R (version 4.2.3) to calculate the standard mean difference (SMD) with 95% CI of cognitive performance between PwNMOSD and HCs. Researchers selected 44 studies, which included a total of 1556 PwNMOSD and 1152 HCs.

The meta-analysis revealed a pooled prevalence of cognitive impairments of 42.91% (95% CI, 35.76% to 50.06%; I2=88.3%) in PwNMOSD. Additionally, PwNMOSD had significantly worse performance compared with HCs on the following cognitive assessments: 

• Montreal Cognitive Assessment (SMD, –2.06; 95% CI, –2.61 to –1.51; P<.0001; I2=80.2%)
• Brief Visuospatial Memory Test (SMD, –1.83; 95% CI, –3.5 to –0.16; P<.05; I2=91.1%)
• Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test (SMD, –1.34; 95% CI, –1.77 to –0.92; P<.0001; I2=72.9%)
• Mini-Mental State Examination (SMD, –1.33; 95% CI, –2.04 to –0.62; P<.01; I2=81.1%) 

The study includes researchers from the University at Buffalo, the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and the University of Miami.