Everyday memory impairment, neuroradiological findings and physical disability in multiple sclerosis

Thirty-five multiple sclerosis (MS) patients diagnosed according to the Poser criteria were examined in a variety of cognition and memory tasks. Their performance was compared to age- and gender-matched healthy individuals. While there was no difference in overall intellectual performance and short-term memory between the MS group and control subjects, the patient group showed significant deficits in several everyday memory tasks including story recall, object and face recognition, procedural, topographical and prospective memory tasks. An intra-group comparison in the MS cohort revealed that those patients with a chronic-progressive MS course exhibited the most substantial everyday memory impairments and highest EDSS scores. These findings coincide with the neuroradiological, semiquantitative lesion analysis which was also performed. In this analysis, the latter MS subgroup also had the highest lesion score, as a sign of an overall brain involvement.