[Visual deficit as a marker of cognitive impairment.]

Glaucoma and cataract continue to be the leading causes of visual deficits, especially in older age groups, but the association of visual deficits with cognitive impairments has not been sufficiently studied. The aim of this study is to study visual impairment as a marker of cognitive impairment in patients with cataracts and glaucoma. The study included 326 elderly patients with cataracts and 318 elderly patients with primary open-angle glaucoma. The degree of cognitive impairment was determined using the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) scale. Visual deficit was assessed by visual acuity without correction and maximum corrected visual acuity, and the severity of visual deficit was assessed by the scale we proposed. It was found that with low visual deficit (visual acuity without correction 0,51-0,60 and over 0,61) in the examined patients, the average score on the MMSE scale varied from 28,4±0,6 to 28,7±0,8 points (p>0,05), corresponding to subjective cognitive disorders. However, with a pronounced visual deficit (visual acuity without correction to 0,20 and 0,21-0,30), the average score is 13,9±0,3 and 16,5±0,4 (p<0,001), which indicates moderate dementia. Practically similar patterns about the association of cognitive impairments with the magnitude of visual deficit were also obtained when assessing visual deficit by maximum corrected visual acuity. The associativity of cognitive impairment with visual defect in patients with cataract and glaucoma was confirmed by the correlation method, according to which the correlation coefficient with visual acuity without correction is r=+0,428 (p<0,05), and with maximum corrected visual acuity - r=+0,385 (p<0,05). The results of the study allow us to consider visual deficit as a marker of cognitive impairment.