Abstract Background and Purpose Dementia is frequent and significant problem in the oldest group of patients. There is scientific evidence in the literature indicating a association between cardiovascular risk factors and development of cognitive decline including Alzheimer disease. The aim of the study was to assess the relationship between chosen cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive functions in hospitalized geriatric patients. Methods We inculded consecutive hospitalized patients aged 65 years. The cognitive functions were evaluated using Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III (ACE-III) with assessment of memory, fluence, attention, language, and visuospatial cognitive domain. Cardiovascular risk factors were assessed using physical examination with blood pressure measurement, laboratory tests including creatinine, LDL cholesterol (LDL), glucose, and N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) serum concentrations and imaging studies including transthoracic echocardiography. Results We included 298 patients (214 females and 84 males, median age 81 76-87 years). Median total ACE III score was 75 62-86 points, median systolic blood pressure (SBP) was 129 mmHg 115-141, median diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was 72 mmHg 64-79, median E/E’ ratio was 12 9-15, median LDL serum concentration was 88 mg/dl 68.2-123, glucose concentration 102 mg/dl 92-114, NT pro BNP 323.1 pg/ml 186.75-713.1 and median haemoglobin was 12.9 g/dl [12.1-13.6. Significant correlations between cognitive functions and DBP, E/E’ratio, Nt-proBNP, creatinine, BMI were observed (Table 1). We didn’t observe significant correlations for cognitive functions and SBP. We compared groups divided according to the median values of cardiometabolic parameters for which we found significant correlations, using the Mann–Whitney U test. We found significantly lower total ACE score in group with DBP 72 mmHg compared with group with DBP ≥ 72 mmHg (p=0.011) and significantly lower total ACE score in group with NT-proBNP ≥854 compared with group with NT-proBNP 854 pg/ml (p=0.001). When adjusted for sex and age in multivariable analysis NT-proBNP was independently negatively associated with total ACE-III score (β coefficient ±SE= -0.0011 ±0.000434). Conclusions Factors negatively related to the cognitive functions were higher NT-proBNP and creatinine serum concentration and E/E’ ratio. Lower diastolic blood pressure relates to the impairment of cognitive function.For image description, please refer to the figure legend and surrounding text.
Wierucka et al. (Mon,) studied this question.