The present study aimed at investigating the neuropsychological sequelae of transient ischaemic
attacks. Transient ischaemic attacks are defined as those neurological disorders in which there
is complete resolution of neurological symptoms within twenty·four hours. Transient ischaemic
attacks may or may not reveal evidence of brain infarcts on imaging studies. In the
present study, the neuropsychological sequelae of transient ischaemic attacks in the carotid
circulation were investigated since, within the perspective of cognitive neuropsychology, it
was assumed that localized changes in cognitive functions could be demonstrated.Since several
psychological, medical and neurological factors are known to influence scores·on
neuropsychological tests, regression
analyses were performed to determine which factors contributed significantly to the variance
of scores on neuropsychological tests in the transient ischaemic attack and control
groups. Two transient ischaemic attack groups, each comprising forty left and forty right hemisphere
involvement
patients, were then compared with each other and with a control group of forty general medical
patients. Stenosis of the carotid artery formed a significant predictor of test scores in the
combined transient ischaemic attack group. When the groups were·analyzed independently, in the left
transient ischaemic attack group stenosis predicted performance on the same tests reaching
significance for the combined group, and for the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (Perseverative
Score). In the right transient ischaemic attack group, stenosis significantly predicted
performance on Digits Forward, Backward and Total, the PASAT (2.4 seconds) and Trails B. On the
other hand, education formed a significant predictor of performance on Digits Forward, Digits
Backward and Digits Total and the PASAT (all levels) in the control group. Multivariate
comparisons revealed that the left and right transient ischaemic attack groups performed worse than the controls on tests of
attention,
concentration and conceptual flexibi1ity. The left transient ischaemic attack group performed
worse than the right transient ischaemic attack group on all tests of attention and concentration,
but there was a significantly better performance of the former group on the Rey Auditory Verbal
Learning Test (Trial 1), Block Designs and Verbal Fluency. The findings on the PASAT
that left transient ischaemic attack patients performed significantly worse than the right
hemisphere group ·were considered to be relatively unreported previously in the literature on
transient ischaemic attacks. The findings obtained are discussed from a neurocognitive perspective
of neuropsychological functioning in transient ischaemic attacks. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/17176 |
| Date | 11 1900 |
| Creators | Lazarus, Theophilus |
| Contributors | Nell, V., Puente, Antonio E. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 1 online resource (xx, 370 leaves) |
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