Cognitive Test Performance and Presence of Subclinical Cardiovascular Disease in the Cardiovascular Health Study

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between performance on a comprehensive battery of neuropsychological tests and the presence of clinical, subclinical or no cardiovascular disease in an elderly community-dwelling population. The results confirm previous reports of significant associations of age, education and gender with test performance. When performance was examined controlling for these variables, significant associations of disease group were seen with five measures emphasizing speed of performance; Parts A and B of the Trail Making Test, the WAIS-R Digit Symbol and Block Design subtests and category verbal fluency. These results add to the evidence that, in addition to other health implications, cardiovascular disease is related to cognitive functioning in the elderly even at subclinical levels.

Cognitive function and common mental disorders in older people with vascular and non‐vascular disorders: a national survey

“…In contrast to other commonly reported physical disorders, participants with vascular disorders had worse cognitive function, as measured by the TICSm, than those without such problems. This is consistent with findings from other surveys of associations between cardiovascular risk factors and cognitive impairment (Breteler et al, 1994;Cerhan et al, 2000;Saxton et al, 2000;Vinkers et al, 2005). The specificity of the association with vascular compared to other disorders supports the assumption that vascular pathology underlies the effect.…”

Perceived cognitive function is a major determinant of health related quality of life in a non-selected population of patients with coronary artery disease ? a principal components analysis

“…Perceived cognitive function was found to be the major determinant -explaining 43% of the variation -in this unselected cohort of patients with CAD. Cognitive function has been shown to be decreased in elderly patients with cardiovascular risk factors -hypertension and diabetes mellitusand in elderly patients with subclinical arteriosclerosis [22][23][24][25]. Furthermore, a decreased cognitive function has been recognized to be a major although probably partly reversible sequel after, e.g., CABG.…”

A Lipidomics Approach to Assess the Association Between Plasma Sphingolipids and Verbal Memory Performance in Coronary Artery Disease Patients Undertaking Cardiac Rehabilitation: A C18:0 Signature for Cognitive Response to Exercise

“…Patients with CAD are a cognitively at-risk population as evidenced by increased brain atrophy[2], white matter lesions[3-7] increased risk of memory impairment, and incipient neurodegenerative diseases that include mild cognitive impairment (MCI)[8-11], vascular dementia[12-15] and Alzheimer's disease (AD)[10, 12, 16, 17]. While CAD patients show disruptions in multiple cognitive domains[9, 18], subtle changes in verbal memory performance have been associated with mortality[19], physical disability[20], progression to dementia,[21] and interference with secondary prevention[22], suggesting that verbal memory may be a key marker of poor outcomes in patients with CAD.…”