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Isokinetic Muscle Strength and Its Association with Neuropsychological Capacity in Cirrhotic Alcoholics
Author(s) -
Tarter Ralph E.,
Panzak George,
Switala JoAnn,
Lu Sandy,
Simkevitz Howard,
Thiel David
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
alcoholism: clinical and experimental research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 153
eISSN - 1530-0277
pISSN - 0145-6008
DOI - 10.1111/j.1530-0277.1997.tb03748.x
Subject(s) - alcoholic liver disease , psychomotor learning , neuropsychology , subclinical infection , cirrhosis , medicine , neuropsychological test , hepatic encephalopathy , gastroenterology , psychology , cognition , psychiatry
Alcoholic cirrhotics (n = 49), nonalcoholic cirrhotics (n = 42), and normal controls ( n = 50) were compared on measures of isokinetic muscle strength and neuropsychological capacity. Alcoholic cirrhotics were deficient on measures of eccentric and concentric muscle movements, compared with normal controls but were not different from nonalcoholic cirrhotics. Nor were differences observed between the two cirrhotic groups on neuropsychological tests of cognitive and psychomotor capacity, suggesting that cirrhosis rather than alcoholism per se is responsible for the manifest deficits. Psychomotor capacity correlated negatively with isokinetic strength in cirrhotic subjects. These findings suggest that muscle weakness, due either directly to advanced liver disease or mediated by subclinical hepatic encephalopathy, accounts for a portion of the variance on the neuropsychological test performance of cirrhotic alcoholics.