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Asymptomatic spontaneous cerebral emboli and cognitive decline in a cohort of older people: a prospective study
Author(s) -
Voshaar Richard C. Oude,
Purandare Nitin,
Hardicre Jayne,
McCollum Charles,
Burns Alistair
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
international journal of geriatric psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.28
H-Index - 129
eISSN - 1099-1166
pISSN - 0885-6230
DOI - 10.1002/gps.1744
Subject(s) - dementia , cognitive decline , asymptomatic , medicine , prospective cohort study , cohort , cognition , cohort study , gerontology , psychiatry , disease
Abstract Background Asymptomatic spontaneous cerebral emboli (SCE) are common in dementia and are associated with cognitive decline in dementia. The significance of their presence in older people is unknown. Method We included 96 participants (mean (SD) age 76.8 (6.7) years, 46% female) who were the control group in a case‐control study to evaluate SCE in dementia. Cognitive functioning was assessed prospectively over 2.5 years, using the MMSE and CAMCOG. Results The mean (SD) MMSE score was 28.7 (1.4) at baseline with an average (SD) drop of 0.79 (0.91) per year. The presence of SCE was not related to the annual drop in MMSE score, nor to the CAMCOG score at follow‐up ( p = 0.88 and p = 0.41, respectively). Linear regression analyses identified higher age in years (β = 0.29, p = 0.003), history of stroke (β = 0.31, p = 0.001) and carotid stenosis (β = 0.28, p = 0.003) as independent predictors of cognitive decline. Conclusion We found no association between the presence of SCE and subsequent cognitive decline in older people without dementia. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.