Auditory and visual reaction time changes in chronic renal failure patients

Abstract

Objective: Chronic renal failure involves progressive and irreversible loss of renal function. This ultimately leads to uremia in which there is loss of excretory functions .Reaction time is the interval between application of stimulus and onset of response. The patients of chronic renal failure show many central nervous system function disturbances which lead to peripheral neuropathy, loss of memory and errors of judgement. The present study assesses these reaction times in uremic patients and compares them with reaction times of controls. Methods: This study was conducted on 25 patients with chronic renal failure on hemodialysis presenting to Dialysis unit, Dayanand medical college and hospital, Ludhiana.25 healthy controls were included for comparison. Auditory and Visual reaction time was recorded using digital display response time apparatus (model no; RTM608 Medicaid: Ambala) equipped with three light stimuli(red, green, yellow) and three auditory stimuli (low, medium, high pitched sounds). Results: The mean and standard deviation was computed. The comparison of means was done using the unpaired t-test. A significant number of patients demonstrated increase in auditory and visual reaction time values. Conclusion: The rate of chronic renal failure is rising worldwide and there has been an outgrowth of research exploring the neuropsychological sequelae of chronic kidney disease. Our study found a relationship between renal and neurophysiological functions especially immediate recall and memory.