Effect of carotid atherosclerosis on mild cognitive impairment

Objective: To examine the effect of carotid atherosclerosis on mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Methods: 1886 relatively healthy Guangzhou residents without history of stroke, myocardial infarction, pulmonary heart disease and malignant tumor were recruited in this study by simple random selection. MCI and carotid color ultrasound were measured in these subjects by using the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), the 10-word list learning task (CWL) and common carotid artery intima-medial thickness (IMT) as indicators. Results: (1) The 300 (15.9%) subjects with MCI were identified. No significant difference in MCI prevalence between the sexes was identified. (2) Significant associations between CWL and traditional cardiovascular risk factors, such as older age, smoking and increased waist circumference, blood pressure and lipids were found. (3) After adjusting for multiple potential confounders, increasing IMT was significantly associated with both decreased CWL (β=-1.05, 95% CI: -1.73 - -0.36) and MMSE score (β=-0.95, 95% CI: -1.67--0.23). (4) After adjusting for age, sex, education, physical activity, smoking, waist circumference and high- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, IMT was significantly thicker in the MCI group than the normal (0.76 mm vs 0.74 mm, F=6.9, P < 0.01). Conclusions: The severity of MCI was significantly and linearly associated with increased IMT, suggesting that preventing atherosclerosis may help to reduce the incidence and development of dementia.