Cognitive-Linguistic outcome in moderate to severe diffuse axonal injury and association with fatigue

Individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) often have persistent cognitive-linguistic deficits that negatively influence their life. Our objective was to examine the cognitive-linguistic outcome in individuals with moderate to severe diffuse axonal injury (DAI) with a novel test battery. As fatigue is a common symptom affecting the lives of individuals with DAI, we also wanted to assess whether the self-reported fatigue was associated with cognitive-linguistic abilities.

Selected cognitive-linguistic subtests of the Finnish KAT test and The Mental Fatigue Scale (MFS) were applied to 48 adults with moderate to severe DAI and 27 healthy controls. The majority of the participants with DAI were in the chronic stage. The groups were compared using ANCOVA. Linear regressions were used to analyze the association between MFS and cognitive-linguistic outcomes.

The participants with DAI had significantly poorer scores than the controls in most cognitive-linguistic variables and reported significantly more fatigue. Two of the four cognitive-linguistic composite variables were associated with the degree of self-reported fatigue.

Cognitive-linguistic deficits are common in individuals with moderate to severe DAI, and The Finnish KAT test is a valuable tool to detect those. Fatigue was associated with linguistic working memory and language production.