Early Life Risk Factors for Stroke and Cognitive Impairment

Risk factors and characteristics analysis of cognitive impairment in patients with cerebral infarction during recovery period

OBJECTIVE

To analyze the risk factors and characteristics of cognitive impairment in patients with cerebral infarction during the recovery period.

METHODS

This retrospective case-control study included 183 patients with cerebral infarction in the recovery period. According to the MMSE score, they were divided into a cognitive impairment group of 79 cases and a cognitive normal group of 104 cases. Collect clinical data from all patients, including age, gender, body mass index, laboratory test results, past medical history, National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score, modified Barthel index, Oxfordshire Community Stroke Project (OCSP) classification, and number of infarcted lesions. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors related to cognitive impairment in patients with cerebral infarction.

RESULT

There were significant differences (p < 0.05) between the cognitive impairment group and the cognitive normal group in terms of age, body mass index, low-density lipoprotein level, NIHSS score, modified Barthel index, and number of infarcted lesions. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that age ≥ 65 years, stroke, carotid artery plaques, NIHSS score ≥ 5, anterior circulation infarction type, and multiple infarcted lesions were important risk factors for cognitive impairment.

CONCLUSION

Elderly age, presence of carotid artery plaques, high NIHSS score, multiple infarct lesions, and specific infarct types are important risk factors for cognitive dysfunction in patients during the recovery period of cerebral infarction.

Impact of Small Vessel Disease Progression on Long-term Cognitive and Functional Changes After Stroke

Background and Objectives

The severity of white matter hyperintensities (WMH) at presentation with stroke is associated with poststroke dementia and dependency. However, WMH can decrease or increase after stroke; prediction of cognitive decline is imprecise; and there are few data assessing longitudinal interrelationships among changing WMH, cognition, and function after stroke, despite the clinical importance.

Methods

We recruited patients within 3 months of a minor ischemic stroke, defined as NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score <8 and not expected to result in a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score >2. Participants repeated MRI at 1 year and cognitive and mRS assessments at 1 and 3 years. We ran longitudinal mixed-effects models assessing change in Addenbrooke’s Cognitive Examination–Revised (ACE-R) and mRS scores. For mRS score, we assessed longitudinal WMH volumes (cube root; percentage intracranial volume [ICV]), adjusting for age, NIHSS score, ACE-R, stroke subtype, and time to assessment. For ACE-R score, we additionally adjusted for ICV, mRS, premorbid IQ, and vascular risk factors. We then used a multivariate model to jointly assess changing cognition/mRS score, adjusted for prognostic variables, using all available data.

Results

We recruited 264 patients; mean age was 66.9 (SD 11.8) years; 41.7% were female; and median mRS score was 1 (interquartile range 1–2). One year after stroke, normalized WMH volumes were associated more strongly with 1-year ACE-R score (β = −0.259, 95% CI −0.407 to −0.111 more WMH per 1-point ACE-R decrease, p = 0.001) compared to subacute WMH volumes and ACE-R score (β = 0.105, 95% CI −0.265 to 0.054, p = 0.195). Three-year mRS score was associated with 3-year ACE-R score (β = −0.272, 95% CI −0.429 to −0.115, p = 0.001). Combined change in baseline-1-year jointly assessed ACE-R/mRS scores was associated with fluctuating WMH volumes (F = 9.3, p = 0.03).

Discussion

After stroke, fluctuating WMH mean that 1-year, but not baseline, WMH volumes are associated strongly with contemporaneous cognitive scores. Covarying longitudinal decline in cognition and independence after stroke, central to dementia diagnosis, is associated with increasing WMH volumes.

Early life predictors of late life cerebral small vessel disease in four prospective cohort studies

Development of cerebral small vessel disease, a major cause of stroke and dementia, may be influenced by early life factors. It is unclear whether these relationships are independent of each other, of adult socio-economic status or of vascular risk factor exposures. We examined associations between factors from birth (ponderal index, birth weight), childhood (IQ, education, socio-economic status), adult small vessel disease, and brain volumes, using data from four prospective cohort studies: STratifying Resilience And Depression Longitudinally (STRADL) (n = 1080; mean age = 59 years); the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort (n = 118; mean age = 68 years); the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936; n = 617; mean age = 73 years), and the Simpson's cohort (n = 110; mean age = 78 years). We analysed each small vessel disease feature individually and summed to give a total small vessel disease score (range 1-4) in each cohort separately, then in meta-analysis, adjusted for vascular risk factors and adult socio-economic status. Higher birth weight was associated with fewer lacunes [odds ratio (OR) per 100 g = 0.93, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.88 to 0.99], fewer infarcts (OR = 0.94, 95% CI = 0.89 to 0.99), and fewer perivascular spaces (OR = 0.95, 95% CI = 0.91 to 0.99). Higher childhood IQ was associated with lower white matter hyperintensity burden (OR per IQ point = 0.99, 95% CI 0.98 to 0.998), fewer infarcts (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.97 to 0.998), fewer lacunes (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.97 to 0.999), and lower total small vessel disease burden (OR = 0.98, 95% CI = 0.96 to 0.999). Low education was associated with more microbleeds (OR = 1.90, 95% CI = 1.33 to 2.72) and lower total brain volume (mean difference = -178.86 cm3, 95% CI = -325.07 to -32.66). Low childhood socio-economic status was associated with fewer lacunes (OR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.40 to 0.95). Early life factors are associated with worse small vessel disease in later life, independent of each other, vascular risk factors and adult socio-economic status. Risk for small vessel disease may originate in early life and provide a mechanistic link between early life factors and risk of stroke and dementia. Policies investing in early child development may improve lifelong brain health and contribute to the prevention of dementia and stroke in older age.