Block-building test to spot minimal hepatic encephalopathy in people with liver disease

AI summary

From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.

The trial is looking for adults with a liver disease (fibrosis, cirrhosis or porto-systemic shunts) to test a new thinking-skills test using building blocks.

Age

18 to 70 years

Sex

All sexes

Disease stage

Liver disease: fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis, or porto-systemic shunts (abnormal blood vessel links that bypass the liver).

Main reasons for not taking part

• People who object to taking part cannot join.
• People not covered by the French healthcare system cannot join.
• People not assessed at the BLIPS clinic (brain tests, MRI, EEG and a blood test with ammonia) cannot join.

The registry criteria, word for word

Check if you might fit

Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.

• Are you between 18 and 70 years old?YesNo

What the trial wants to find out

The aim of this project is to evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of a cognitive test toward the presence of minimal hepatic encephalopathy (MHE). MHE is a neurological complication due to hepatic dysfunction and/or the presence of porto-systemic shunts defined by the presence of neurocognitive impairments (NI). Other factors of brain injury may cause NI independently from the liver condition making the differential diagnosis difficult using available cognitive tests (ANT Animal Naming Test, PHES Psychometric Hepatic Encephalopathy Score, CFF Critical Flicker Frequency test). The cognitive test evaluated in this project is a construction task using construction blocks, allowing the evaluation of psychomotor speed, executive functions, attention, and episodic memory. The measures will be compared to other cognitive tests validated for the evaluation of the targeted cognitive functions (PHES, Mesulam Cancelling task, Rey-Osterrieth complex figure, Free and Cued Selective Reminding Test) and cognitive tests validated for the diagnosis of MHE (PHES, ANT, CFF). The diagnosis of MHE is based on an adjudication committee including a multimodal assessment of MHE (brain MRI with spectroscopy, EEG, blood sample, neuropsychological assessment), allowing the evaluation of comorbidities such as other factors of brain injury.

The group in the trial

• Patients

  Population with chronic liver disease or the presence of portal-systemic shunts, attending the BLIPS day hospital

  Treatment: Cognitive test