Cognitive decrement in older adults with symptomatic peripheral artery disease

AbstractPeripheral artery disease (PAD) is highly prevalent, affecting up to 20% of people over 70  years of age. To test the hypothesis that PAD promotes the pathogenesis of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI), we compared cognitive function in older adults with symptomatic PAD and in participants without PAD who had a burden of comorbid conditions. Furthermore, we compared the cognitive functi on of these groups after adjusting for demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbid conditions, and cardiovascular risk factors. Participants with PAD (age: 69 ± 8 years;n = 58) and those without PAD (age: 62 ± 8 years;n = 30) were assessed on a battery of eight neuropsychological tests. The tests assessed attention and working memory, verbal memory, non-verbal memory, perceptuo-motor speed, and executive function. Participants were further characterized on demographic and clinical characteristics, comorbid con ditions, cardiovascular risk factors, and ankle-brachial index. The PAD group had significantly lower neuropsychological scores than the non-PAD control group on all eight tests (P <  .01). After adjusting for covariates, significantly worse scores in the PAD group persisted for verbal memory, measured by tests on logical memory-immediate recall (P = .022), and logical memory-delayed recall (P <  .001), and for attention and working memory, measured by tests on digits forward (P <  .001), and digits backward (P = .003). Pa...
Source: AGE - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research