Abstract
Background
The causative mechanisms of type 2 diabetes (T2D) on cognitive dysfunction are still
undergoing development.
Aim
To explore the cognitive dysfunction profile and its relation to the potential role
of arterial stiffness in later middle age T2D patients.
Methods
We studied 37 patients with T2D (age range 45–65 years) and 22 normal controls. All participants underwent comprehensive neuropsychological
assessment. The carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) measurements were taken
with the PulsePen device.
Results
Our results showed significantly poorer performance on all tests assessing attention/executive
functions and processing speed in patients with T2D. In addition to cognitive slowing
T2D patients demonstrated significant deficits in almost all measures of verbal episodic
memory after adjustment for age, education and blood pressure (BP) levels (p<0.05). Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CF-PWV) appeared significantly higher
in T2D subjects than in normal controls after adjustment for age and BP level (p<0.001). Significant relationship was observed between CF-PWV and cognitive status.
Conclusion
We revealed that arterial stiffness was increased and associated with cognitive impairment
in T2D. The cognitive profile indicates hippocampal amnestic type mild cognitive impairment
associated with a pronounced dysexecutive syndrome suggesting that diabetes may affect
cognition through both vascular and neurodegenerative processes. However, neurodegenerative
cognitive profile caused by hippocampal atrophy in a pure vascular process could not
be excluded.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: August 07, 2012
Accepted:
July 19,
2012
Received in revised form:
July 19,
2012
Received:
February 10,
2012
Identification
Copyright
© 2012 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
