Vascular disease burden in Indian subjects with vascular dementia.
BACKGROUND
Vascular disease factors like hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, and ischaemic heart disease contribute to the development of vascular dementia. As comorbidity of vascular disease factors in vascular dementia is common, we investigated the vascular disease burden in subjects with vascular dementia.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the vascular disease burden due to four vascular disease factors: hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, and ischaemic heart disease in Indian subjects with vascular dementia.


METHODS
In this study, 159 subjects with probable vascular dementia (as per NINDS-AIREN criteria) attending the memory clinic at a tertiary care hospital were assessed for the presence of hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidaemia, and ischaemic heart disease using standardised operational definitions and for severity of dementia on the Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) scale. The data obtained was subjected to appropriate statistical analysis.


RESULTS
Dyslipidaemia (79.25 per cent) was the most common vascular disease factor followed by hypertension (73.58 per cent), ischaemic heart disease (58.49 per cent), and diabetes mellitus (40.80 per cent). Most subjects (81.1 per cent) had two or more vascular disease factors. Subjects with more severe dementia had more vascular disease factors (sig 0.001).


CONCLUSIONS
People with moderate to severe dementia have a significantly higher vascular disease burden; therefore, higher vascular disease burden may be considered as a poor prognostic marker in vascular dementia. Subjects with vascular dementia and their caregivers must manage cognitive impairment and ADL alongside managing serious comorbid vascular diseases that may worsen the dementia.
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research & Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Mina
M
Chandra
Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research & Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, India.
Kuljeet Singh
KS
Anand
Vascular dementia; dementia severity; diabetes mellitus; dyslipidaemia; hypertension; ischaemic heart disease; vascular disease burden