Cognitive Profiles of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury and mild Vascular Cognitive Impairment: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Objective The cognitive profile of any neurological disorder is very important throughout the duration of a person's treatment. It has a role in diagnosis, prognosis, and even after remission of active symptoms. It is a common trend among clinicians to monitor and compare the cognitive profiles of different disease conditions to locate the area of maximum dysfunction, with respect to a particular diagnosis. This study correlates the cognitive profiles of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and mild vascular cognitive impairment (mVCI). Methods The study population comprised 30 mTBI and 30 mVCI patients medically diagnosed by a neurologist. The patients were been selected from the neuromedical outpatient department (OPD) and neurosurgery OPD of the Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology (SCTIMST), Trivandrum. Simple random sampling had been used to select the sample. The patients diagnosed with the stated disease conditions were referred for neuropsychological assessment. Testable and cooperative patients were recruited for the study. To stabilize the data and for a transparent comparison, 30 healthy controls with no medically diagnosed illnesses were also added to the study. The results were analyzed using R. Result and Conclusion The study concluded that cognitive profiles of mTBI and mVCI patients were significantly different from the cognitive profiles of healthy controls, but there was no statistically significant difference between the cognitive profiles of mVCI and mTBI patients except in confrontation naming and recognition memory.