Neuropsychological Performance Is Associated With Vascular Function in Patients With Atherosclerotic Vascular Disease

Abstract

Objective-We previously reported preliminary data (Nϭ14) demonstrating a significant and positive relationship between forearm vascular function and neuropsychological performance in individuals with atherosclerotic vascular disease (AVD). The current study was conducted to confirm and extend those findings in a much larger, nonoverlapping sample. Methods and Results-Participants were 82 individuals with AVD, with no history of stroke, cardiac surgery, or dementia.Forearm vascular function was measured before and after brachial artery infusion of vasoactive agents (acetylcholine, nitroprusside, verapamil

Vascular health and cognitive function in older adults with cardiovascular disease

“…Data from this study demonstrate that brachial responses correlate specifically to neurocognitive changes in the attention-executive domain, i.e., capacities of rapid processing speed, but not with language, visual-spatial abilities, or memory. Such neurocognitive attributes correspond to frontal lobe function, and is consistent other studies that have described relationships between CVD and frontal lobe changes 25,26,41 .…”

“…However, our data also demonstrate that nitroglycerin-mediated vasodilation (endothelial-independent) correlate to cognition, suggesting that vascular-cognitive relationships are complex. Correlation of cognition to endothelial-independent indices is consistent with the conclusions demonstrated by Moser et al 26 as well as Scuteri et al's assessments of vascular stiffness23 , 24.…”

“…In two earlier studies, investigators used invasive techniques to distinguish endothelial vascular responses in elderly patients with atherosclerosis and to analyze correlations to global cognition25 , 26 . In contrast to these investigations, we employed brachial flow-mediated dilation, a more convenient non-invasive measure of endothelial function, to analyze vascular responses and cognition.…”

“…Whereas the two previously mentioned studies by Moser et al enrolled only patients with atherosclerotic disease 25,26 , we enrolled older adults with hypertension, heart failure, arrhythmia, as well as atherosclerosis, because all are highly prevalent with aging 15 and we wanted to study vascular flow responses and cognition in a population of typical elderly adults.…”

Higher Aortic Stiffness Is Associated With Lower Global Cerebrovascular Reserve Among Older Humans

“…Older adults in the subset participants (n=24) were recruited to undergo neuroimaging after completion of a separate study investigating vascular function and cognitive performance. 25 Therefore, measurements of arterial stiffness were completed within a median of 24±3.0 months before completion of [ 15 O]water PET imaging. In a separate analysis, we adjusted cfPWV values to account for this time delay between vascular and neuroimaging visits using previously published longitudinal data for predicted yearly change in cfPWV of 0.05 m/s per year.…”