JAHA: Relationship between coronary artery calcification and cognitive function

Recently, a study published in JAHA, an authoritative journal in the field of cardiovascular disease, looked at whether the increased severity of coronary artery calcification (CAC, an image student marker of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis) was associated with poor cognitive function and not cardiovascular risk factors.
researchers cross-sectional analysis of 4,988 ImaLife study participants (45-91 years old, 58.3 percent of women) with no history of cardiovascular disease, and obtained a CAC score using non-enhanced heart CT.
CogState simple series of tests is used to evaluate four cognitive areas: processing speed, attention, working memory, and visual learning based on detection tasks, recognition tasks, 1 back task, and 1 card learning task.
researchers used covarial analysis to adjust for traditional cardiovascular risk factors and compared the average score differences for each cognitive domain for patients in four CAC categories (0, 1-99, 100-399,≥400).
researchers conducted age stratization analyses (45-54, 55-64 and ≥65 years) to assess whether the association between CAC severity and cognitive function changed with age.
, after correcting traditional cardiovascular risk factors, higher CAC was associated with poor performance in one lateral task, but CAC was not associated with other cognitive tasks.
age stratization analysis showed that the association between CAC severity and working memory persisted in participants between the ages of 45 and 54, while in older adults the association lost its significantity.
, the increase in CAC severity was associated with poor working memory performance and was independent of traditional cardiovascular risk factors in the Dutch population over the age of 45.
among participants aged 45 to 54, the CAC score had the strongest negative correlation with working memory.