The clinical study on the relationship between silent cerebral ischemia and cognitive impairment in inpa-tiens older than sixty with nonvalvula atrial fibrillation / 中国神经精神疾病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objectives The aim of this study was to study the relationship between silent cerebral ischemia (SCI) and mild cognitive impairment(MCI)in inpatients with nonvalvula atrial fibrillation (NAF) and those with sinus rhythm (SR) older than sixty. Methods Ninety-eight inpatients were enrolled from November 2014 to November 2015 in Hui?zhou Municipal Central Hospital 45 patients with NAF and 53 with SR. All general clinical data was collected. The Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) and brain MRI were used to assess the cognitive performance of patients within 1 weeks of admission. Results The MoCA scores were lower in patients with NAF than in those with SR[16(10,20) vs. 20 (15,23),P=0.006]. At least one foci of SCI was present in patients 80%with NAF and 52.8%with SR (NAF vs. SR, P=0.018).The rates of SCIs in the cortex/subcortex were higher in the NAF group than in the SR group (25.2%vs. 12.4%, P=0.017). Multivariate analysis showed that MoCA score were related to the degree of education in NAF patients and were related to age and education level in SR patients. Conclusions NAF is an independent risk factor for cognitive impair?ment in NAF patient and associated with the SCI present. Educational level is a factor affecting the cognitive function with elderly patients.