The relationship between cognitive function and plasma homocysteine level in vascular dementia patients

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1674-3806.2015.11.07

Abstract：Objective To study the relationship between cognitive function and plasma homocysteine( Hcy) level in vascular dementia(VaD) patients.Methods Forty-six hospitalized VaD patients were collected as VaD group and other 50 patients with non-demented cerebral infarction were collected as cerebral infarction group from June 2013 to February 2015.40 healthy elderly patients were taken as the control group.The severity of cognition im-pairment of VaD patients was classified by MMSE′s scores.The levels of plasma Hcy, folic acid and vitamin B12 were detected in all these patients, and the relationships between these indicators and the severity of cognition impairment were studied.Results The levels of plasma Hcy in VaD group and cerebral infarction group were higher than those in the control group(P<0.05).The levels of folic acid and vitamin B12 in VaD group and cerebral infarction group were lower than those in the control group(P<0.05).The level of plasma Hcy in VaD group was higher than that in cere-bral infarction group(P<0.05), while the levels of folic acid and vitamin B12 in VaD group were lower than those in cerebral infarction group(P<0.05), the concentrations of plasma Hcy increased, folate and vitamin B12 decreased significantly in VaD patients with the increasing severities of cognition impairment(P<0.05).Conclusion The lev-el of plasma Hcy is associated with the occurrence and development of VaD.Hyperhomocysteinemia may be a risk factor for VaD.The detection of Hcy level is beneficial to the prevention and cure of VaD.