The main contribution of this work, as discussed below, is the identification of a new tool, the determination of MMN area, that is useful to diagnose and follow the course of attention deficits and MHE in patients with liver cirrhosis. The data reported also show that patients who do not show MHE, as detected using the PHES, already have some psychomotor slowing,

as reflected selleck compound library by the reduced number of words and colors in the congruent and neutral tasks of the Stroop and increased time in the bimanual coordination test. This indicates that there are some mild neurological alterations not detected with the PHES and are detected by other procedures. This agrees with a report38 showing that ataxia, tremor, and slowing of finger movements are early markers for cerebral dysfunction in cirrhotic patients, even before alterations in performance in the PHES become detectable. This suggests that the PHES battery detects some “subtypes of MHE,” but not others. Patients with MHE show much stronger alterations in the Stroop tasks and in bimanual coordination

than patients without MHE. Moreover, they show other alterations not present in patients without MHE, including reduced area in the MMN wave, reduced performance in Map Search CX-4945 mouse and elevator tests, indicating impairment of selective and sustained attention, respectively, and reduced performance in the visuomotor coordination test. This supports that

patients with click here MHE have remarkable attention deficits. Reduction of MMN area in patients with MHE is specifically associated with reduced performance in attention tests, but not with other alterations, such as motor coordination. This is supported by the results of patients who improved or worsened in the follow-up study. Patients PR51, A41, and A28 had MHE, mainly the result of impairment of attention (mainly NCT-B; Table 4). In the follow-up, they improved in attention tests, resulting in resolution of MHE and normalization of MMN area, which increased from 49 ± 3 to 130 ± 25. In contrast, patient PR27 did not show impairment in attention tests or in the MMN area (108.5) in the first study, and MHE was caused by impaired motor coordination, of which improvement led to resolution of MHE in the second study without changes in MMN area. This supports that reduction of MMN area in patients with MHE is associated with reduced performance in attention tests, but not with other alterations, such as motor coordination. Moreover, in the second study, MMN area was reduced in those patients (A40, PR41, A49, and A23) showing worsened performance in attention tests (Table 4; Fig. 4). MMN area selectively predicts performance in attention tests and MHE, as shown by logistic regression analyses.