Stroke Survivors Face a High Burden of Vascular Dementia

Delayed dementia after stroke is common and appears to reflect mostly vascular pathology.

Nearly one tenth of previously cognitively intact patients develop dementia in the year after stroke. The relative contributions of vascular injury and neurodegeneration to this cognitive decline remain unclear. Therefore, investigators conducted a longitudinal study of 355 older patients (aged ≥75) who were free of dementia 3 months after stroke. Participants underwent neuropsychological testing annually; the investigators identified incident cases of dementia according to standard DSM-IV criteria. The researchers performed brain autopsies in 50 of the 176 participants who died.

Over time, 142 patients (40%) withdrew from neuropsychological follow-up, but their baseline characteristics were similar to those of patients who continued follow-…

Reviewing Author

Hooman Kamel, MD

Disclosures

Speaker’s bureauGenentech

Grant / Research supportNational Institutes of Health/National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke; Michael Goldberg Stroke Research Fund

Editorial boardsPLOS One; Scientific Reports

Leadership positions in professional societiesNeurocritical Care Society (Research Committee Member)