[The prevalence and risk factors for cognitive impairment following ischemic stroke]

To identify the prevalence and risk factors that were associated with post-stroke cognitive impairment (PSCI) among a large cohort of consecutive ischemic stroke patients.

526 consecutive patients, who had suffered from ischemic stroke 3 months ago were recruited in this study. Patients were classified as having no cognitive impairment (NCI), cognitive impairment but no dementia (CIND) and vascular dementia (VaD) according to their cognitive function. They were also categorized as with subcortical ischemic vascular diseases (SIVD) or cortical ischemic vascular diseases (CIVD) with neuroimaging findings. Their demographic data, vascular risk factors and stroke characteristics were also documented.

The overall prevalence of PSCI (CIND + VaD) was 36.7%. Compared with the NCI subjects, PSCI subjects were older, more dominant femininely, less educated, with more cases of right hemi-paralysis and higher depression scores, but did not have more specific vascular risk factor. Separately, VaD patients demonstrated lower economic level, less spouse-caring, more prevalence of dysphasia, higher rate of incontinence and more cases with CIVD, while CIND patients had more cases with SIVD. The VaD patients had more cortical lesions and lower depression scores than the CIND patients. On logistic regression analysis, older age, female gender, lower economic level, dysphasia, SIVD, CIVD and higher depression scores were independent risk factors for PSCI.

PSCI is common among ischemic stroke patients and related to demographic factors, stroke types, and depression.