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A Metadata Extraction Approach for Clinical Case Reports to Enable Advanced Understanding of Biomedical Concepts
Published on: September 20, 2018
Clinical Manifestations
Sulakshna Aggarwal1, Priya Chatterjee2, Hitesh Pradhan2
1Centre for Brain Research, Bangalore, Karnataka, India.
High homocysteine levels are linked to poorer cognitive function and smaller brain volumes in rural Indian adults, regardless of vitamin B12 status. Early homocysteine screening may help identify individuals at risk for cognitive decline.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Nutritional Neuroscience
- Gerontology
Background:
- Vitamin B12 influences cognitive function, potentially via homocysteine levels.
- Limited data exists on Vitamin B12, homocysteine, and cognitive/brain health in rural India.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess the association between serum vitamin B12, homocysteine, MRI brain volumes, and cognitive performance in a rural Indian aging population.
- To investigate potential mediating effects of homocysteine between vitamin B12 and cognitive/brain outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional analysis of 2784 non-demented participants (aged 45+) from the CBR-SANSCOG cohort.
- Cognitive assessment using HMSE and COGNITO battery; MRI brain volumetry on a subset (n=1268).
- Statistical analysis using general linear models, adjusting for multiple covariates.
Main Results:
- No association found between vitamin B12 levels and cognitive performance or brain volumes.
- Elevated homocysteine levels correlated with lower HMSE and visual attention scores, and reduced hippocampal volume.
- Homocysteine did not mediate the relationship between vitamin B12 and cognitive/brain outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Increased serum homocysteine is negatively associated with cognitive performance in this population, independent of vitamin B12 levels.
- Early screening for homocysteine may identify individuals at risk for cognitive impairment.
- Homocysteine could be a component of a multimodal biomarker for early cognitive impairment detection.
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