Profiling Cognitive Deficits in Intra-Axial and Extra-Axial Tumors Using Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination as a Screening Tool: An Indian Experience

BACKGROUND: Tumors of the brain, whether intra- or extra-axial, results in cognitive deficits. The aim of the present study was to profile cognitive deficits using Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-Malayalam (ACE-M) as a screen and to determine the sensitivity and specificity of the same. METHODS: Seventy-four drug naïve patients diagnosed to have brain tumors were assessed for cognitive functioning using ACE-M before surgery. RESULTS: Patients with high-grade intra-axial tumors showed a significant association on the cognitive domains of registration (0.04), recall (0.01), and visuospatial functioning (0.02). Gender showed an association between registration (0.02) and verbal fluency (0.02) with females performing better while education was significantly associated with retrograde or remote memory (0.00) with college-educated sample performing better. Significance was assumed at P < 0.05. In extra-axial tumors, laterality had a single association with recall (0.02). Males showed a significant cognitive decline on the cognitive domains of attention (0.02), recall (0.05), naming (0.02), and language functions (0.01). College educated group performed better on registration (0.01), recall (0.09), naming (0.00), and visuospatial functioning (0.00). The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was estimated as 0.75, which indicates fairly good discriminative ability with a cut off of 71/100; sensitivity at 77.3 and specificity fixed at 67. CONCLUSIONS: ACE-M is capable of bringing out cognitive deficits along with a number of cognitive domains in patients with intra- and extra-axial tumors in the capacity of a screen, with fairly good levels of sensitivity and specificity.