Neurocognitive Changes in Tertiary Neurosyphilis: A Retrospective Chart Review
Bibliographic record
Abstract
CONTEXT: Since the beginning of the new millennium, prevalence of syphilis has re-increased and is once again, a major public health problem. Neurosyphilis is the extension of syphilitic infection to the nervous system. It is considered by many as a cause of reversible dementia, when treated early. However, scarce data exist on the evolution of cognitive and behavioral impairments in patients affected by tertiary neurosyphilis. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to explore the cognitive and behavioral changes in a cohort of patients diagnosed with neurosyphilis. DESIGN: A retrospective study based on systematized chart review between 2000 and 2012 in a large neurological tertiary care facility. OUTCOME MEASURE: Clinical evaluations by treating physicians. RESULTS: Eighteen patients were identified with tertiary neurosyphilis. Out of this group, only two had systematic neuropsychological follow-up despite physician reports of significant and persistent cognitive and psychiatric changes. For these two cases, only slight improvements were noted in memory and executive skills while improvements in attention were marked. None of our patients had previous psychiatric history yet a large proportion developed symptoms after the infection. CONCLUSION: Although neurosyphilis is traditionally considered a reversible form of dementia, we found limited support for this claim in our two patients with close follow-up. Quality data on the cognitive and psychiatric changes in the rest of our cohort was dramatically lacking, and this could not be explained by absence of symptoms at presentation. Given the recrudescence of syphilis, we propose a systematic approach to the evaluation and follow-up of this disorder.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.004 | 0.004 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".