Why the study?
Do anxiety and cerebral hypoperfusion interact to worsen cognitive dysfunction in older adults with cardiovascular disease?
Do anxiety and cerebral hypoperfusion interact to worsen cognitive dysfunction in older adults with cardiovascular disease?
In older adults with cardiovascular disease, higher anxiety combined with frontal lobe hypoperfusion is associated with worse cognitive performance.
May support anxiety assessment in older CVD patients with cognitive concerns; leaves open causality and intervention effects.
OBJECTIVES: Anxiety is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and is associated with neurocognitive outcomes. The effect of anxiety on brain perfusion in a CVD population has yet to be examined, and no study has investigated the interactive effects of anxiety and cerebral perfusion on cognition. METHODS: A total of 55 older adults with CVD completed the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and underwent arterial spin labeling to quantify cortical perfusion and thickness. Participants were administered the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status. RESULTS: Reduced perfusion predicted poorer cognition and decreased cortical thickness. Higher anxiety score predicted worse memory performance and decreased frontal perfusion. Frontal lobe hypoperfusion combined with increased BAI scores exacerbated poorer MMSE performance. CONCLUSIONS: Higher anxiety may exacerbate the effects of cerebral hypoperfusion on cognitive impairment. Longitudinal studies are needed to confirm our findings and determine whether anxiety treatment improves neurocognitive outcomes in CVD.
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Alosco et al. (2014) studied this question.
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