Perioperative neurocognitive functions in patients with neuroepithelial intracranial tumors.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess perioperative neurocognitive functions in patients with surgery for intracranial neuroepithelial tumors. METHODS: Seventy-one patients [38 male, 33 female, mean age 47.2 years (range 18 to 81)] with surgery for an intracranial neuroepithelial tumor were included in this prospective single-center study. Mini-mental status examination (MMSE) and extensive neurocognitive testing (divided into the categories attention, memory, and executive functions and adjusted for age, sex, and education) were performed pre-(t0) and early postoperatively (t1). Part of the patient cohort (n = 32) also underwent neurocognitive testing during follow-up (t2). The Karnofsky Performance Status Scale (KPS) was used to assess patients' functional independence. Patients' quality of life was recorded by the Short Form 36 (SF 36) pre- and postoperatively in a part of the patient cohort. Pre- and postoperative comparisons were performed using the Wilcoxon-test for paired samples. Post hoc Bonferroni correction was performed to adjust for multiple testing. To assess the influence of risk factors on neurocognitive functions, Spearman correlations and the chi-squared test were performed. Subgroup analyses for patients with low-grade and high-grade tumors were performed. RESULTS: Postoperative deterioration was observed in 5 of 39 subtests of extensive neurocognitive testing in all 3 categories, whereas no improvement was shown. Patients with WHO Grade I tumors showed no deterioration of cognitive functions. Patients with WHO Grade II and III tumors showed significantly worse results in the executive functions category patients with WHO Grade IV tumors showed deterioration in the attention category. Significantly worse functional independence was recorded postoperatively and during follow-up (P < 0.001). Patients reported poorer physical health (SF 36, P = 0.001) at t1, whereas mental health did not differ significantly (P = 0.480). Risk factors for postoperative deterioration of cognition are low KPS scores, postoperative radiotherapy and tumor location in the temporal lobe. CONCLUSIONS: After surgery on an intracranial neuroepithelial tumor, early postoperative deterioration of neurocognitive functions, functional independence and physical health occur. Similar results were also shown during follow-up suggesting that these effects are not only due to postoperative systemic factors or fatigue. This knowledge might improve perioperative surveillance of neurocognitive functions.

Personality Traits in Patients with Neuroepithelial Tumors - A Prospective Study.

Aim of this study was to analyze personality traits in patients with neuroepithelial brain tumors. Personality alteration is a common feature in brain tumor patients, but not much is known about associations between specific personality changes and brain tumors. We assessed potential factors influencing personality such as tumor location, tumor grade and tumor volume. Mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Beck's Depression Inventory II (BDI-II), and the NEO Five-Factor Inventory (NEO-FFI) for the five factors of personality were acquired. Patients had lower scores regarding the factor openness and higher scores regarding the BDI-II compared to the norm population. No significant influencing factors (tumor entity, location) were found regarding personality traits. Neuroticism was associated with depression, whereas extraversion showed an opposed association. Patients with intrinsic brain tumors have differences in personality traits compared to the control population, with an emphasis on the factor openness. No significant confounding factors like tumor grade, entity, or location were found for personality traits.

Psychiatric comorbidity in temporal DNET and improvement after surgery.

BACKGROUND: "Alien tissue" may be responsible for a higher frequency of psychiatric disorders in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Also, ganglioglioma and dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumors (DNET) could represent a risk-factor for the development of post-surgical psychoses. Classically, severe psychiatric disorders contra-indicate epilepsy surgery. OBJECTIVES: Assessment of inter-ictal psychiatric disorders in 10 consecutive patients with temporal DNET, before and after epilepsy surgery with a minimum of a 2-year follow-up evaluation. METHODS: DNETs were confirmed on histological examination. Psychiatric disorders were classified according to the DSM-IV-TR. RESULTS: Five patients presented inter-ictal psychiatric disorders with, according to the DSM-IV-TR, undifferentiated schizophrenia (one case), "borderline" personality (two cases), intermittent explosive disorder with slight mental retardation (one case), and personality disorders not otherwise specified but with some traits of dependent personality and with mythomania (one case). The condition of these five patients dramatically improved after surgery. No psychiatric behavior or "de novo" psychosis was observed after surgery in any of the patients. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of inter-ictal psychiatric disorders appears to be high in epileptic patients with a temporal lobe DNET primarily in relation to personality and behavioral problems with some degree of impulsivity and verbal aggressiveness. The improvements after surgery suggest that this therapy could be performed in these patients and severe psychiatric disorders do not contra-indicate this procedure.

[Gliomatosis cerebri as cause of neuropsychiatric symptoms]. / Gliomatosis cerebri neuropsykiatristen oireiden syynä.

Gliomatosis cerebri (GC) is a rare cancer of the central nervous system, having already penetrated into various areas of the central nervous system upon becoming manifest. In tissue specimens the histopathologic picture of the tumor appears similar to that seen in diffuse gliomas at different stages of disease. Typical MRI findings in GC include diffuse increases in signal intensity in the brain, and indistinct gray-white matter demarcation in T2-weighted images. Surgical treatment is usually not possible. We describe a patient, in whom CG turned eventually out to be the cause of severe neuropsychiatric symptoms.

Late-onset obsessive compulsive disorder associated with possible gliomatosis cerebri.

Onset of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) after the age of 50 years is rare, and should alert the physician to possible "organic" causes of OCD. These include infections, degenerative disorders, brain injury and cerebrovascular lesions, principally involving the frontal lobes and basal ganglia. The current patient had obsessive images, anxiety, auditory hallucinations and seizures following (possible) gliomatosis cerebri, with onset around 69 years of age. The atypical presentation, lesions involving the cortical-basal ganglia-thalamic-cortical circuit and the association with neurological signs/symptoms, was characteristic. However, late-onset OCD has not been commonly reported with diffuse lesions, and the association with gliomatosis cerebri is not known. This patient's case illustrates the need for careful screening of older patients with recently acquired OCD, and for further systematic study of OCD in the broad range of neuropsychiatric disorders affecting the elderly.

Intelligence and adaptive function in children diagnosed with brain tumour during infancy.

BACKGROUND: Late effects of treatment in children diagnosed and treated for brain tumours in infancy is a major concern. Assessment of infants presenting with brain tumours is difficult and there is little information available regarding the development of infants prior to treatment and hence the impact of the tumour itself on developmental outcomes. AIM: To describe the development of children diagnosed with brain tumours in infancy and to document their cognitive and adaptive function at school entry. METHOD: Infants were psychologically evaluated at the time of diagnosis of a brain tumour and during their fifth or sixth year in preparation for school entry. RESULTS: Children diagnosed with brain tumours in infancy display developmental delays in a number of areas of adaptive function. By the time these children are school age they display further compromise in cognitive and academic skills and adaptive behaviour. Higher levels of deficit at follow-up were associated with tumour location in the supratentorium, younger age at diagnosis and longer time since diagnosis. The effect of radiotherapy could not be determined because of differing degrees of developmental compromise in the treatment groups at baseline. CONCLUSION: Brain tumours in infancy confer a risk of poor developmental progress at the time of diagnosis. These children display additional compromise of development by the time they reach school age. Research protocols evaluating the impact of treatment in infants diagnosed with brain tumours need to take account of the developmental status of the child at diagnosis.

Gliomatosis cerebri: neurobehavioral and neuropathological observations.

BACKGROUND: Gliomatosis cerebri is a rare neoplasm in which individual neoplastic cells diffusely permeate the brain; a cohesive tumor mass may appear late in the disease course, or not at all. The diagnosis can be made either at autopsy or premortem by combining biopsy and neuroimaging findings to demonstrate involvement of more than two lobes of the brain. Extensive hemispheric white matter and corpus callosum infiltration is characteristic, with lesser spread to subcortical and cortical gray matter. Whereas this pattern of localization can be predicted to cause significant disturbances of higher function, the neurobehavioral profile of gliomatosis cerebri patients has not been well described. METHOD: Three patients with gliomatosis cerebri had detailed neurobehavioral assessment, and one had neuropsychological testing early in the disease. Neuropathological investigation focused on the localization of the neoplasm, the correlation between extent of myelin and axon damage with tumor cell density, and the histogenesis of the tumor. RESULTS: The patient with neuropsychological testing had impaired executive function and verbal memory retrieval that reflected bifrontal and left temporal white matter tumor involvement seen on neuroimaging. In the other cases, apathy and fatigue progressed to severe dementia in association with bihemispheric white matter infiltration. Myelin and axon stains and myelin stains showed relative preservation of white matter architecture with severity of damage paralleling increased tumor cell density. Immunostaining for TP53 was found in a high percentage of tumor nuclei in two of three cases, suggesting overlapping features between gliomatosis cerebri and diffuse astrocytomas. CONCLUSIONS: Subtle cognitive and emotional alterations antedate the florid dementia that develops later in the course of gliomatosis cerebri. Clinical, neuroimaging, and neuropathological data suggest that white matter is damaged directly by the tumor and its associated mild edema, although infiltration of subcortical and cortical gray matter also occurs to a variable extent. Strong TP53 immunostaining in gliomatosis cerebri suggests a commonality with diffuse fibrillary astrocytomas that also often show TP53 staining. Gliomatosis cerebri can be considered a cause of white matter dementia resulting from preferential neoplastic disruption of white matter tracts.