The association between pulse wave velocity and cognitive function : the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study

Joel Singer, Julian N. Troller, John Crawford, Michael F. O'Rourke, Bernhard T. Baune, Henry Brodaty, Katherine Samaras, Nicole A. Kochan, Lesley Campbell, Perminder S. Sachdev, Evelyn Smith

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    Objectives: Pulse wave velocity (PWV) is a measure of arterial stiffness and its increase with ageing has been associated with damage to cerebral microvessels and cognitive impairment. This study examined the relationship between carotid-femoral PWV and specific domains of cognitive function in a non-demented elderly sample. Method: Data were drawn from the Sydney Memory and Ageing Study, a cohort study of non-demented community dwelling individuals aged 70–90 years, assessed in successive waves two years apart. In Wave 2, PWV and cognitive function were measured in 319 participants. Linear regression was used to analyse the cross-sectional relationship between arterial stiffness and cognitive function in the whole sample, and separately for men and women. Analysis of covariance was used to assess potential differences in cognition between subjects with PWV measurements in the top and bottom tertiles of the cohort. Covariates were age, education, body mass index, pulse rate, systolic blood pressure, cholesterol, depression, alcohol, smoking, hormone replacement therapy, apolipoprotein E e4 genotype, use of anti-hypertensive medications, history of stroke, transient ischemic attack, myocardial infarction, angina, diabetes, and also sex for the whole sample analyses. Results: There was no association between PWV and cognition after Bonferroni correction for multiple testing. When examining this association for males and females separately, an association was found in males, with higher PWV being associated with lower global cognition and memory, however, a significant difference between PWV and cognition between males and females was not found. Conclusion: A higher level of PWV was not associated with lower cognitive function in the whole sample.
    Original languageEnglish
    Article numbere61855
    Number of pages6
    JournalPLoS One
    Volume8
    Issue number4
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2013

    Open Access - Access Right Statement

    Copyright: 2013 Singer et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

    Keywords

    • aging
    • cognition
    • pulse wave velocity

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