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Building upon the above study, the authors compared GW veterans
with the most severe symptoms of Syndromes 1, 2, and 3 (cases) with two
groups of veterans with no serious health problems, deployers and non-deployers
to the Persian Gulf (20 controls). The 23 cases had more evidence of brain
dysfunction by several neuropsychological tests. Neurophysiological and
audiovestibular tests among cases generally did not exceed normal limits
for the testing laboratory, but the results were significantly more in
the abnormal direction in the cases than in the controls. Neurological
examinations disclosed no difference between cases and controls in the
proportions with abnormalities. The distribution of blood test abnormalities
was not significantly different between cases and controls. Six neurologists
and the investigators who reviewed the findings on each subject concluded
that clinical and laboratory findings were nonspecific and not sufficient
to diagnose any known syndrome in any subgroup of the subjects. The authors
conclude that the cases’ scores "more in the abnormal direction
on objective tests of neurologic function" support their hypothesis
that "a subset of veterans with Gulf War-related illnesses appears
to have a subtle neurologic injury or illness contracted in the war."
The authors suggest that future screening of Gulf War veterans should
include a combination of neuropsychological, neurophysiological, and audiovestibular
tests similar to those used in this study. Limitations of the study are
the low rate of participation (see above study), the small sample sizes
(23 cases divided among the 3 syndromes), the interpretation of test results
that were generally within normal limits, the inclusion of veterans with
known diseases among the cases, and the speculative nature of the putative
exposures with which the veterans’ symptoms are associated. |
