Objective: To evaluate changes in cognition in a selected group of asymptomatic homosexual/bisexual men over a 3-year period.
Patients and methods: Sixty HIV-infected (Centers for Disease Control stage II) subjects and 60 controls (individually matched for age and years in education) were administered neuropsychological tests evaluating attention, language, memory, logic and visuo-motor abilities. None of the patients had a history of alcohol or drug abuse, and all received the baseline cognitive evaluation within 18-24 months of seroconversion.
Results: The HIV-infected subjects differed from controls in only one of the six memory tests (P < 0.01). Follow-up evaluation after 18 and 36 months (available for 51 and 36 subjects, respectively) demonstrated a significant deterioration in visuo-motor ability (P < 0.01) only in subjects who had progressed to AIDS, without signs or symptoms of central nervous system involvement.
Conclusions: The data suggest that cognitive alterations in asymptomatic stages of HIV infection are in most subjects minor and do not develop. Percentage rates of CD4 lymphocyte decline appear to be significantly related to deterioration in visuo-motor abilities.