Montreal cognitive assessment in primary sjogrens syndrome. A brief screening tool.

OBJECTIVE: To use the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) test to assess the subclinical cognitive impairment in patients with Primary Sjogren`s Syndrome (PSS) and assess the correlation of MoCA results with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in these patients. METHODS: The MoCA test was prospectively administered to 32 consecutive patients (31 females, 1 male) diagnosed with PSS and 30 healthy controls (29 females, 1 male) at Antalya Education and Research Hospital between June 2014 and October 2015. Twenty PSS patients underwent a brain MRI (T1, T2, and T2- FLAIR-weighted sequences). RESULTS: The mean age was 45.84 (range 24-63) in the PSS group, and the mean duration of disease was 3.5 years (4 months - 18 years). There were 22 patients (68.80%) with 5-8 years of education and 10 patients (31.30%) with more than 8 years of education. The mean age was 42.8 (28-64) in the control group. There were 20 controls (66.70%) with 5-8 years of education and 10 controls (33.3%) with more than 8 years of education. The delayed recall rate of the patient group with 5-8 years of education was significantly lower than that of the control group, and the recall rate with multiple choice cues for the same patient group was significantly higher than that of the control group (p less than 0.05). There was no correlation between the number of lesions and total MoCA score or subgroups. CONCLUSION: We suggest that the MoCA test is a single-page, easy-to-administer test, can be used to assess cognition in patients with PSS especially in large groups.

Diagnostics of peripherally located intrathoracic lipoma.

In the differential diagnosis of lipomas, fibromatous hamartoma, liposarcoma, fibrolipoma and teratoma may be mentioned as fat-containing lesions of peripheral localization. However, these lesions are different from lipomas in that they contain soft tissue components and are not homogeneous. Furthermore, they are much larger than lipomas, are infiltrative and their CT density is greater than -50 HU. Though it is emphsized that up to the present time surgery has been the gold standard method in the recognition and treatment, considering the risks of surgical procedures, we are of the opinion that diagnosis can be established and the follow-up can be managed with advanced radiological methods and that there is no necessity for invasive interventions especially in asymptomatic patients.