Results from a study recently presented during the European League Against Rheumatism Annual European Congress of Rheumatology revealed no association between cognitive function and serum uric acid levels or mean platelet volume in patients with fibromyalgia.
Patients with fibromyalgia frequently complain of cognitive problems or “fibrofog.” The existence of these symptoms has been confirmed by studies on the incidence of cognitive problems in people suffering with fibromyalgia and by several results of objective tests of metamemory, working memory, semantic memory, everyday attention, task switching, and selective attention.
In this study the research team assessed 54 women in premenopause with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia (FM) evaluated according to the American College of Rheumatology criteria. Patients had attended the outpatient rheumatology clinic at the Baclar Training and Research Hospital in Istanbul. The researchers also included 33 healthy controls age and sex- matched. Results from the statistical analysis showed no significant differences between the two groups.
The VAS was used to assess pain and sleep quality and the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) to assess functional status. To address patients’ psychological status, researchers used The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and to evaluate the frequency of cognitive impairment the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) was used. Patients were also assessed for mean platelet volume (MPV), platelet counts and levels of serum uric acid (UA).
The results revealed that compared to the healthy control group, patients with FM scored significantly higher in the mean VAS for pain and sleep quality. Furthermore, the team observed significant differences in the FIQ and the BDI scores between the two study groups. Compared to the healthy control group, patients with FM scored significantly lower in the MMSE scores, but with no significant differences for MPV, platelet counts or serum UA. The results also revealed no associations between the levels of MPV, serum UA and VAS for pain or sleep quality, FIQ, BDI or MMSE scores.
This data may help clinicians to better understand some of the mechanisms behind fibromyalgia development and progression.