title: Vascular risk as a predictor of cognitive decline in a cohort of elderly patients with mild to moderate dementia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The purpose of our study was to evaluate vascular risk factors and other clinical variables as predictors of cognitive and functional decline in elderly patients with mild to moderate dementia.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical characteristics of 82 elderly patients (mean age 79.0 ± 5.9 years; 67.1% females) with mild to moderate dementia were obtained at baseline, including years of education, Framingham Coronary Heart Disease Risk score, Hachinski Ischemic Score (HIS), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, Functional Activities Questionnaire (FAQ) score, Burden Interview Scale score, and Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) score. Changes in MMSE and FAQ scores over time were assessed annually. The association between baseline clinical variables and cognitive and functional decline was investigated during 3 years of follow-up through the use of generalized linear mixed effects models.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A trend was found towards steeper cognitive decline in patients with less vascular burden according to the HIS (β = 0.056, p = 0.09), better cognitive performance according to the CDR score (β = 0.313, p = 0.06) and worse caregiver burden according to the Burden Interview Scale score (β = -0.012, p = 0.07) at baseline.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Further studies with larger samples are necessary to confirm and expand our findings.
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Pedro K
authors.initials: PK
authors.lastname: Curiati
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil ; Cognitive Disorders Reference Center (CEREDIC), São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Regina M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Magaldi
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Claudia K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Suemoto
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Disorders Reference Center (CEREDIC), São Paulo, Brazil ; Old Age Research Group (PROTER), Department of Psychiatry, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Cassio M C
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bottino
authors.affiliation: Cognitive Disorders Reference Center (CEREDIC), São Paulo, Brazil ; Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Unit, Department of Neurology, University of São Paulo Medical School, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Ricardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nitrini
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: José Marcelo
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Farfel
authors.affiliation: Discipline of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, Clinical Hospital, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Wilson
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Jacob-Filho
keywords: Aging; Aging and cognition; Alzheimer's disease; Dementia; Prognosis