Neuropsychological evaluation of bleeding cirrhotic patients

The cognitive profile was evaluated after an acute episode of esophageal bleeding in 26 patients with non-alcoholic hepatic cirrhosis and no previous history of acute hepatic encephalopathy. The neuropsychological test battery employed had been calibrated and standardized for age, sex, and education on a sample of 321 normal subjects. Cognitive deficits were found in some of the patients but it was not possible to selectively identify the tests that they failed or to establish a scale of severity for their scores. Further, there was no significant correlation between the psychometric and metabolic parameters. It would seem that the influence of chronic liver disease on brain functions builds up to a threshold effect, a hypothesis that calls for longitudinal studies.