- NEW YORK (Reuters Health)
- A high risk for stroke predicts a deterioration in mental functioning,
even when dementia and clinical stroke do not occur, investigators reported
here today at a media briefing by the American Medical Association.
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- "Factors that increase the risk of stroke affect
planning and organizational abilities," lead researcher Dr. Merrill
F. Elias told the attendees. Such risk factors include type 2 diabetes,
abnormal heart rhythms, heart enlargement, high blood pressure, and smoking.
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- The Framingham Stroke Risk Profile (FSRP) is a validated
score that measures the risk of having a stroke, based on a variety of
factors such as blood pressure, smoking, having diabetes, and so on.
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- Dr. Elias, at Boston University, and his colleagues examined
FSRP scores in 2,175 members of the Framingham Offspring Cohort, none of
whom had a history of stroke or dementia. The participants also underwent
a battery of mental tests
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- The researchers found that as stroke risk increased,
performance went down on tests of abstract reasoning, visual-spatial memory,
tracking and organization, and attention. Functions not associated with
FSRP were verbal learning and memory, Dr. Elias said.
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- He explained that the decline in mental powers may be
related to the occurrence of small strokes "that haven't reached clinical
significance, which still end up in dead brain tissue."
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- Since stroke risk profile factors play a role in dementia,
"it is very likely that they play a role in Alzheimer's disease,"
he added.
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- "The importance of our work is that it establishes
a relationship between high risk for stroke and early cognitive deficit,"
the investigator explained. "The greatest opportunity to intervene
is at the beginning when the cognitive deficit is mild. As the deficit
increases, our opportunity to intervene decreases significantly."
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- Behavioral interventions and medications to treat risk
factors such as hypertension and hypercholesterolemia "are both essential,"
he told Reuters Health.
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- This report will be published in the February issue of
the medical journal Stroke. Dr. Vladimir Hachinski, editor-in-chief of
Stroke and neurologist at the University of Western Ontario in Canada,
told the group: "These findings suggest that in those who are prone,
stroke can precipitate Alzheimer's disease."
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- He continued: "We know that stroke is preventable.
In principle, since stroke is treatable, Alzheimer's disease too may be
treatable."
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