Stroke risk profile, brain volume, and cognitive function
- 9 November 2004
- journal article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Neurology
- Vol. 63 (9), 1591-1599
- https://doi.org/10.1212/01.wnl.0000142968.22691.70
Abstract
Background: Mid-life stroke risk factors have been related to late-life cognitive impairment. This association may result not only from clinical strokes but also from subclinical brain injury, such as a global atrophy demonstrable on quantitative brain MRI. Methods: The authors evaluated the community-based cohort of Framingham Offspring Study participants. A total of 1,841 subjects (mean age, 62 years; 857 men, 984 women) who underwent quantitative MRI and cognitive testing between 1999 and 2001 and were free of clinical stroke and dementia constituted our study sample. The authors used age- and sex-adjusted linear regression models to relate previous (1991 to 1995) and recent (1998 to 2001) Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP) scores to the total cerebral brain volume ratio (TCBVr) on follow-up MRI, and further to relate the TCBVr with education-adjusted scores on neuropsychological tests administered at the time of imaging. Results: There was an inverse association between FSRP scores and TCBVr. The TCBVr also showed a significant positive association with performance on tests of attention (Trails A), executive function (Trails B), and visuospatial function (visual reproduction, Hooper visual organization), but not with performance on tests of verbal memory or naming. Conclusions: The Framingham Stroke Risk Profile may identify subjects with smaller brains and poorer cognitive function among stroke- and dementia-free subjects, reinforcing the importance of managing stroke risk factors.Keywords
This publication has 48 references indexed in Scilit:
- Clinical Correlates of Ventricular and Sulcal Size on Cranial Magnetic Resonance Imaging of 3,301 Elderly PeopleNeuroepidemiology, 1999
- Impact of Apolipoprotein E ε4 and Vascular Disease on Brain Morphology in Men From the NHLBI Twin StudyStroke, 1999
- Hypertension Is Related to Cognitive ImpairmentHypertension, 1998
- 15-year longitudinal study of blood pressure and dementiaThe Lancet, 1996
- Magnetic resonance abnormalities and cardiovascular disease in older adults. The Cardiovascular Health Study.Stroke, 1994
- Stroke risk profile: adjustment for antihypertensive medication. The Framingham Study.Stroke, 1994
- Smaller local brain volumes and cerebral atrophy in spontaneously hypertensive rats.Hypertension, 1993
- Brain atrophy in hypertension. A volumetric magnetic resonance imaging study.Hypertension, 1992
- Dementia in stroke survivors in the Stroke Data Bank cohort. Prevalence, incidence, risk factors, and computed tomographic findings.Stroke, 1990
- The framingham offspring study. Design and preliminary dataPreventive Medicine, 1975