LATERALIZATION OF VASCULAR COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS

The question of post-lesion re-organisation of cognitive functions in cerebrovascular disease remains open. The aim of this study is to determine whether there is any connection between lesion lateralization and cognitive profile of stroke patients.
205 patients (18-88 years old, 85 women) with cerebrovascular disease were assessed with the Russian version of Oxford Cognitive Screen (Rus-OCS) and Russian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (Rus-MoCA). The scores on attention, memory, praxis, language and number processing domains have been obtained. Lesion lateralization was assessed by use of structural MRI scans from the Siemens Avanta 1,5 Т scanner.
Patients with left hemisphere lesions showed lower scores on language and verbal subtasks whereas patients with right hemisphere lesions performed worse on a subtask on visuospatial functions. Analysis of the impairment ratios within each group confirmed these results. Patients with bilateral lesions demonstrated functional impairments typical of brain damage for either hemisphere but no isolated impairment to language or visuospatial processing.
The results with lateralized deficits might help specialists with the selection of lesion-specific treatment methods.