High frequency of silent brain infarcts associated with cognitive deficits in an economically disadvantaged population

• Autor(a) principal: Squarzoni, Paula
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Tamashiro-Duran, Jaqueline H., Duran, Fabio L.S., Leite, Claudia C., Wajngarten, Mauricio, Scazufca, Marcia, Menezes, Paulo R., Lotufo, Paulo A., Alves, Tania C.T.F., Busatto, Geraldo F.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Clinics
• Texto Completo: https://www.revistas.usp.br/clinics/article/view/138272
• topic: Framingham Coronary Heart Disease Risk; Ageing; Educational Level; Cognition; Silent Brain Infarction

OBJECTIVE: Using magnetic resonance imaging, we aimed to assess the presence of silent brain vascular lesions in a sample of apparently healthy elderly individuals who were recruited from an economically disadvantaged urban region (São Paulo, Brazil). We also wished to investigate whether the findings were associated with worse cognitive performance. METHODS: A sample of 250 elderly subjects (66-75 years) without dementia or neuropsychiatric disorders were recruited from predefined census sectors of an economically disadvantaged area of Sao Paulo and received structural magnetic resonance imaging scans and cognitive testing. A high proportion of individuals had very low levels of education (4 years or less, n=185; 21 with no formal education). RESULTS: The prevalence of at least one silent vascular-related cortical or subcortical lesion was 22.8% (95% confidence interval, 17.7-28.5), and the basal ganglia was the most frequently affected site (63.14% of cases). The subgroup with brain infarcts presented significantly lower levels of education than the subgroup with no brain lesions as well as significantly worse current performance in cognitive test domains, including memory and attention (p