A card game developed by scientists in Melbourne to test the cognitive powers of Aborigines has found a new application: checking the rate at which patients recover their mental capacities after heart surgery. The game, now the property of Australian company CogState, has also seen service in assessing, over a season, the attrition of all those mind-numbing tackles on the brainpower of rugby players. CogState chief scientist Paul Maruff said it's a puzzle why brain function deteriorates after heart surgery. "While coronary artery bypass surgery has saved thousands of lives, doctors have long worried about the side effects, which can be a decline in the patient's cognitive ability," Maruff told The Sydney Morning Herald. He reckons that tests with the card game before and after an operation can detect a decline even just five days after surgery. The initial findings by Dr Maruff, from research conducted in tandem with doctors at Melbourne's St Vincent's Hospital, are to be found in the latest issue of the British Journal of Anaesthesia. Thanks to UPI, 4/04 Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur Remember we are NOT Doctors and have NO medical training. This site is like an Encylopedia - there are many pages, many links on many topics. Support our work with any size DONATION - see left side of any page - for how to donate. You can help raise awareness of CAM.