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Cognitive concerns arise in many aging-associated diseases besides Alzheimer disease; examples are diabetes mellitus (DM) and cerebrovascular disease. Three research groups recently explored in community-based populations how glucose control influences brain structure and function and interacts with other diseases of aging.
To identify specific hippocampal lesions associated with DM and with brain infarcts, Wu and colleagues evaluated cerebral blood volume (CBV) in 240 subjects aged 65 or older; 60 reported having type 2 DM, and 74 had MRI-confirmed vascular disease. DM and infarcts were each associated with global hippocampal dysfunction, driven by focal CBV decreases in the dentate gyrus in subjects with DM and in the CA1 subfield and subi…