[Neurocognitive screening in a population with acquired immunodeficiency virus]

Neurocognitive impairment associated to human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a current problem despite the effectiveness of antiretroviral treatment. The screening tests which best suit to Spanish population are Brief Neuro-cognitive Scale (BNCS) and Neu Screening. We are unaware of our HIV population' neurocognitive impairment magnitude.

To verify if association between HIV and neurocognitive impairment does exist and to know its prevalence.

An observational, descriptive and transversal study comparing 24 HIV-outpatients and 21 non-HIV-healthy control matched by age, gender and educational level. Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Neu Screening and BNCS were used as neurocognitive impairment screening. Positive screening was considered with one or more abnormal test.

33.3% of VIH+ and 33.3% of healthy controls had positive screening without significant difference between both populations. Positive screening was significantly associated with anxiety-punctuation and depression-punctuation. A lineal correlation between CD4-nadir-levels and Digit Symbol and between CD4-nadir-levels and verbal fluency results were found. There was no significant relationship between HIV serology and screening result.

HIV-patients clinically controlled had no significantly different neurocognitive profile compared to control population. CD4-nadir levels may be a predictor variable in terms of neurocognitive impairment development. BNCS and Neu Screening are reasonable alternatives for neurocognitive impairment screening. A concomitant psychiatric and neuro-psychological assessment is necessary. Further studies with bigger samples are necessary in order to confirm the alternative hypothesis.