A hemispheric comparison of cognitive dysfunction and sleep quality impairment in Middle Cerebral Artery infarction: Middle Cerebral Artery infarction

Objectives: To investigate the severity of cognitive dysfunction and sleep quality impairment in patients with middle cerebral artery (MCA) strokes across the left and right hemisphere. Moreover, it also study gender differences with respect to MCA strokes.

Methods: The study was conducted from February 2019 - May 2019 at COMSATS University, Islamabad. A total sample size of N=55 middle cerebral artery ischemic infarct patients was selected with N=29 left middle cerebral artery ischemic infarct patients and N=26 right middle cerebral artery ischemic infarct patients. The sample was assessed on The Neurocognitive Assessment Battery for stroke patients (N-CABS) & The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index-Urdu (PSQI-U).

Results: The mean age of the sample was 50.96 years. There was a significant difference among scores of cognitive dysfunction between Left MCA (M=47.28, SD=12.87) and Right MCA stroke patients (M=29.7, S=21.41), t (53) =-6.80, p<0.001. Similarly, there was significant difference among scores of sleep disturbance between Left MCA (M=6.90, SD=2.93) and Right MCA (M=10.35, SD=3.97), t (53) =-3.68, p<0.001. Gender comparisons reveal that there is no significant difference between males and females for both, cognitive dysfunction and sleep quality impairment.

Conclusions: Cognitive dysfunction and sleep quality impairment due to MCA strokes is significant between left and right hemispheres respectively, regardless of gender, assessed with N-CABS and PSQI-U. Further studies are required to analyse other demographic correlates related to MCA strokes.