Vascular Brain Injury Greater Risk Factor Than Amyloid Plaques in Cognitive Aging

From ScienceDaily: Vascular brain injury from conditions such as high blood pressure and stroke are greater risk factors for cognitive impairment among non-demented older people than is the deposition of the amyloid plaques in the brain that long have been implicated in conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, a study by researchers at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UC Davis has found. The more vascular brain injury the participants had, the worse their memory and the worse their executive function — their ability to organize and problem solve. The research was conducted in 61 male and female study participants who ranged in age from 65 to 90 years old, with an average age of 78. Thirty of the participants were clinically “normal,” 24 were cognitively impaired and seven were diagnosed with dementia, based on cognitive testing.  Commentary: while this emphasizes that older people can benefit from hypertension control this was a small study with a large age range of participants and should encourage a better study with larger numbers and better controls.

Source: Dr. Buttery's Public Health BLOG - February 15, 2013 Category: Epidemiologists Authors: cbuttery Tags: Chronic Disease epidemiology Prevention Translational Research Source Type: blogs