2023 年 19 巻 1 号 p. 16-21
Background: The Trail Making Test (TMT) is widely used as a measure of attention and executive functions. The time needed to complete TMT (TMT score) is prolonged in the presence of attention and executive dysfunction in patients with brain diseases. Thus far, there have been few reports examining the TMT score in the early stages of mild ischemic stroke.
Methods: We evaluated the TMT-Japanese edition (TMT-J) score 8-14 days after onset in patients with mild ischemic stroke. When the TMT-J Part A or Part B score was high, re-evaluation was performed 29-35 days after onset.
Results: In a total of 54 patients, 1 and 4 patients could not complete TMT-J Part A and Part B, respectively. The average Part A and Part B scores were 65 and 119 seconds, respectively. Part A and Part B scores were higher than one standard deviation above the age-specific average scores in 51 and 47% of patients, respectively. In these patients, Part A and Part B scores improved in 81 and 69% of the patients on re-evaluation, respectively.
Conclusions: This study demonstrated that a significant proportion of mild ischemic stroke patients exhibited a high TMT-J score 8-14 days after onset, and scores improved over time in the majority of patients.
