Does stable coronary heart disease affect cognitive function and cerebral oxygenation-perfusion during exercise compared to healthy controls?
Stable coronary heart disease patients exhibit worse cognitive function and reduced cerebral oxygenation-perfusion during exercise recovery compared to age-matched healthy controls, with cognitive function correlating with VO2 peak and maximal cardiac index.
Chronic exercise has been shown to prevent or slow age-related decline in cognitive functions in otherwise healthy, asymptomatic individuals. We sought to assess cognitive function in a stable coronary heart disease (CHD) sample and its relationship to cerebral oxygenation-perfusion, cardiac hemodynamic responses, and Formula: see text peak compared to age-matched and young healthy control subjects. Twenty-two young healthy controls (YHC), 20 age-matched old healthy controls (OHC) and 25 patients with stable CHD were recruited. Cognitive function assessment included short term-working memory, perceptual abilities, processing speed, cognitive inhibition and flexibility and long-term verbal memory. Maximal cardiopulmonary function (gas exchange analysis), cardiac hemodynamic (impedance cardiography) and left frontal cerebral oxygenation-perfusion (near-infra red spectroscopy) were measured during and after a maximal incremental ergocycle test. Compared to OHC and CHD, YHC had higher Formula: see text peak, maximal cardiac index (CI max), cerebral oxygenation-perfusion (ΔO2 Hb, ΔtHb: exercise and recovery) and cognitive function (for all items) (P<0.05). Compared to OHC, CHD patients had lower Formula: see text peak, CI max, cerebral oxygenation-perfusion (during recovery) and short term-working memory, processing speed, cognitive inhibition and flexibility and long-term verbal memory (P<0.05). Formula: see text peak and CI max were related to exercise cerebral oxygenation-perfusion and cognitive function (P<0.005). Cerebral oxygenation-perfusion (exercise) was related to cognitive function (P<0.005). Stable CHD patients have a worse cognitive function, a similar cerebral oxygenation/perfusion during exercise but reduced one during recovery vs. their aged-matched healthy counterparts. In the all sample, cognitive functions correlated with Formula: see text peak, CI max and cerebral oxygenation-perfusion.
Gayda et al. (2017) studied this question.