Welcome to InCirculation.net
InCirculation.net is a professional cardiovascular resource intended for a global audience of specialists, generalists, researchers, and other healthcare professionals
Cardiovascular news provides daily news updates to help you stay informed.
Diabetes may speed up progression of mild cognitive impairment
31 August 2010
MedWire News: The presence of diabetes in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) can accelerate progression to dementia by more than 3 years, a Swedish study suggests.
Although diabetes has previously been associated with dementia, this association did not extend to MCI, say Weili Xu (Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University) and colleagues. They hypothesized that “diabetes may lead to dementia bypassing MCI or shortening the MCI phase in old people.”
Over a 9-year period, the researchers investigated the development of dementia among 963 cognitively intact participants and 302 MCI patients aged at least 75 years.
At baseline, 5.8% and 3.1% of cognitively intact participants, and 6.0% and 5.3% of MCI patients had diabetes and pre-diabetes, defined as blood glucose levels of 7.8 to 11.0 mmol/l, respectively.
In all, 22.0% of cognitively intact participants and 51.3% of the MCI patients developed dementia over the 9-year follow-up period.
As reported in the journal Diabetes, patients with MCI and diabetes or pre-diabetes at baseline had a 2.87- and 4.96-fold increased risk for progression to dementia, respectively, compared with those without diabetes or pre-diabetes.
The stronger association found among those with pre-diabetes compared with diabetes may be due to “the high glycemic level in pre-diabetes that is a commonly ignored condition,” explain the researchers.
The team also found that patients with MCI and diabetes or pre-diabetes developed dementia a median of 3.18 years earlier than those with MCI but no diabetes or pre-diabetes, at 1.83 and 5.01 years, respectively.
Xu et al hypothesize: “Pathophysiological mechanisms including hyperglycemia, insulin resistance, oxidative stress... may explain the effect of glucose deregulation on dementia risk.”
They conclude: “Our findings underline the importance of regular monitoring of cognitive function in people with diabetes and pre-diabetes.”
Your opinion matters - help to shape the future of InCirculation.net by completing our short survey. 
