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Population-based studies have consistently found links between risk factors for cerebrovascular disease (CVD) — such as diabetes and hypertension — and Alzheimer disease (Neurology 2005; 64:277 and Neurology 2005; 65:545). Potential associations between atherosclerosis of the carotid arteries and AD have been less well studied in epidemiologic contexts, perhaps because it is difficult to perform carotid ultrasounds in large community-based samples. Now, researchers have used the longitudinal prospective Rotterdam Study to examine associations between carotid disease, as measured by carotid ultrasound, and incident dementia in 6647 persons (mean age at baseline, 69).
The findings were complex: In the short term (over a mean of 2.1 years), inc…