The effect of carotid occlusion in cognition before endarterectomy.

The role of carotid stenosis on cognition remains to be determined. To study whether people with stenosis of the carotid artery have increased cognitive impairments, we studied 53 patients with moderate or severe carotid stenosis (with no symptoms of stroke or dementia) and 53 controls. We describe which cognitive functions were impaired in the patients and whether there were differences based on the side, the severity of the stenosis or the presence of neurological symptoms. Using the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, we found that the patients with carotid stenosis had lower cognitive performances in attention, verbal memory, visuospatial capacity and verbal fluency. Patients with lesser degrees of stenosis than healthy control patients had better scores in learning and memory. The results from this study suggest that patients with severe carotid stenosis have a lower cognitive status than healthy control patients, which is associated with the degree of total carotid stenosis.