Clinical efficiency of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test for patients with internal carotid artery stenosis

Background and Purpose: Most patients who have an internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis with cerebral lesion have some cognitive dysfunction. To clarify the clinical efficiency of the Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) and to assess the relationship between AVLT and cerebral damage, we examined AVLT in patients with ICA stenosis. Methods: 44 patients (35 males and 9 females) with ICA stenosis aged 56 to 83 (69.6±6.5) years old were evaluated. The educational periods were from 9 to 16 (12.3±2.8) years. Their activities of daily living (ADL) were independent. We assessed cognitive function with neurosychological tests including AVLT, Mini-mental State Examination (MMSE), Raven's coloured progressive matrices (RCPM) and Frontal Assessment Battery (FAB), etc. We assessed cerebral damage (periventricular high intensity; PVH and white matter hyperintensity; WMH) with MRI. Then, we investigated the relationship between AVLT and other neuropsychological tests, and the relationship between AVLT and carotid/cerebral lesion. Results: There was no association with lesion side of ICA stenosis and the scores of AVLT. In patients with ICA stenosis and cerebral damage (PVH and/or WMH), there was a significant relationship between the severity of cerebral damage and the scores in AVLT. AVLT had a significant relationship to other neuropsychological tests. Conclusions: AVLT might be a good cognitive assessment for patients who have cerebral damage due to ICA stenosis.