The Effect of Vascular Neuropathology on Late-life Cognition: Results from the SMART Project

Cerebral vascular pathology may contribute to cognitive decline experienced by some elderly near death. Given evidence for mixed neuropathologies in advanced age, preventing or reducing cerebrovascular burden in late life may be beneficial.

To correlate measures of cerebral vascular pathology with cognitive trajectories.

Observational study.

A cohort of 2,274 individuals who came to autopsy at a mean age of 89.3 years and 82 percent of whom had at least two cognitive assessments within the last six years of life was compiled from six centers conducting longitudinal studies.

For each cognitive domain: immediate and delayed memory, language, and naming, three trajectories were examined: good, intermediate, and poor cognition. The probability of a participant belonging to each trajectory was associated with measures of cerebral vascular pathology after adjustment for demographics, APOE, and Alzheimer neuropathology.

A large proportion of the cohort (72-94%) experienced good or intermediate cognition in the four domains examined. The presence of arteriolosclerosis and the presence of lacunar infarcts doubled the odds of belonging to the poor cognitive trajectory for language when compared to the good trajectory. The presence of lacunar infarcts increased the odds of an intermediate or poor trajectory for immediate and delayed recall while the presence of large artery infarcts increased the odds of poor trajectories for all four cognitive domains examined. Microinfarcts and cerebral amyloid angiopathy had little effect on the trajectories.

Indicators of cerebral vascular pathology act differently on late life cognition.