Study on the clinical application of the MRS in the cognitive assessment after stroke

To discuss the value of the application of the magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) in the assessment of cognitive function impairment and the observation of therapeutic effect.

30 patients with cognitive impairment after stroke (cognitive impairment group) and 30 patients with no apparent cognitive impairment (control group of the stroke) were selected through the screening of the mini-mental state examination (MMSE) scale, and another 30 healthy volunteers were selected (control group of the health). The general information of gender, age, education degree, disease duration and so on was matched among the 3 groups. MRS examined all the patients of the 3 groups at the time of enrollment, and the patients of both cognitive impairment and control groups received another assessment 2 months after treatment.

The NAA/Cr (N-acetyl aspartate/creatine) of the bilateral hippocampus of the cognitive impairment group was lower than those of both control group of stroke and health (p < 0.05), while the Cho/Cr was higher (p < 0.05). After treatment, both patients of the cognitive impairment group and the control group of the stroke experienced an increase of NAA/Cr and a decrease of Cho/Cr (p < 0.05).

MRS is applicative in the assessment of the cognitive impairment degree of the stroke patients and can also effectively identify the existence of the cognitive impairment, which makes it preferably valuable in the clinical application.