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The 7-year follow-up of the Hungarian BICAMS validation cohort implies that cognitive performance may improve in multiple sclerosis patients

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Abstract

Background

Cognitive impairment (CI) is a frequent symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) and has a great impact on the patients’ quality of life, so screening is essential. The brief international cognitive assessment for multiple sclerosis (BICAMS) was developed for this purpose. However, longitudinal data is lacking with the use of the battery.

Objective

This study is to assess the performance of patients after 5 and 7 years of the original BICAMS validation study and to identify any influencing factors.

Methods

BICAMS was used to measure cognitive function of 52 relapsing-remitting MS patients (RRMS) from the original validation study after 5 years (n = 43) and again, after 7 years (n = 42). Patients filled out the fatigue impact scale (FIS) and multiple sclerosis quality of life-54 (MSQoL-54) questionnaire, and we evaluated expanded disability status scale (EDSS).

Results

There was an improvement in the BVMT-R and the CVLT-II assessments at both the 5-year (p<0.001 and p=0.025) and the 7-year retest (p<0.001 and p=0.002). The prevalence of CI significantly decreased at the 5-year mark (p=0.021) but remained stable after that. There was no deterioration in MSQoL scores during the study. The basic cognitive performance is the most important influencing factor, but the duration of the disease, the EDSS score, and the escalation of the therapy also affect the cognitive scores.

Conclusion

This is the longest longitudinal study utilizing the BICAMS battery, reinforcing its feasibility as a clinical screening tool. It seems that cognitive performance may improve in the long term and early initiation of effective therapy may influence this outcome.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank our MS nurses (Judit Erdélyi, Alexandra Csizmadia), and administrators (Ibolya Kéri Fürediné, Violetta Molnár) for their constant precise work, without which this assessment could not have taken place.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, Albert Szent-Györgyi Faculty of Medicine and Clinical Center, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

    Aliz Nyári, Zsófia Kokas, Szabolcs Szamosi, Zsanett Fricska-Nagy, Judit Füvesi, Zsigmond Tamás Kincses, Tamás Biernacki, László Vécsei, Péter Klivényi, Krisztina Bencsik & Dániel Sandi

  2. Department of Radiology, Albert Szent-Györgyi Faculty of Medicine and Clinical Center, University of Szeged, Szeged, Hungary

    Zsigmond Tamás Kincses

  3. ELKH - SZTE Neuroscience Research Group, Szeged, Hungary

    László Vécsei

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  1. Aliz Nyári
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Dániel Sandi and Krisztina Bencsik. Data collection and analysis was performed by all authors. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Aliz Nyári and Dániel Sandi. All authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dániel Sandi.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This study was performed in line with the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. Approval was granted by the Ethics Committee of the University of Szeged (Approval numbers: 207/2015 SZTE RKEB and 124/2013-SZTE RKEB). Participation in the study was based on written informed consent.

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Nyári, A., Kokas, Z., Szamosi, S. et al. The 7-year follow-up of the Hungarian BICAMS validation cohort implies that cognitive performance may improve in multiple sclerosis patients. Neurol Sci 45, 3369–3378 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10072-024-07347-5

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