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panoramic view of Zocalo and Cathedral - Mexico City
Project
Project Type - Pilot Projects

Frequency and Determinants of Vascular Cognitive Impairment in Post Stroke

Identifying the risk factors and frequency of post-stroke dementia and vascular cognitive impairment
Latin America & Caribbean

Overview

This pilot study will identify the main risk factors as well as the frequency of post-stroke dementia (PSD) and vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) in stroke survivors in Mexico City. In Mexico and in the world, stroke is the leading cause of disability and it increases the risk of dementia 3.5 to 5.6 times. Vascular dementia (VD) including PSD is the second most common cause of cognitive decline. It has been found that the profile of risk factors for stroke and the frequency and risk factor profile of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) vary from country to country. In Mexico, however, there have been no studies to determine the frequency of VCI and PSD in the general population, or whether the risk factor profile for VCI is the same as in other countries.

Project Details

We will recruit all patients diagnosed with stroke during 9 months in Hospital General “Dr. Gaudencio González Garza” CMN la Raza (stroke referral centre) that consent to be part of the study and do not present exclusion criteria. We will match them with stroke-free controls recruited from primary care clinics. An assessment consisting of the tests detailed below will be performed at 3 and 9 months after the stroke.

The evaluation, following the protocol of other CogFAST studies, will consist of a review of the participants’ medical history for the presence risk factors (cardiovascular risks, physical activity, smoking and alcohol intake), nutritional status and blood tests (glucose, dyslipidaemia, renal function). We will assess functionality and depression through the Rankin Scale, NIHSS and Barthel Index, CESD and GDS-4. Finally, we will evaluate the presence of VCI and PSD using the CSID, MoCA (Spanish Version) and the Vascular Neuropsychological Battery 30 minutes version. The data obtained will be compared to other studies that are part of the Stroke and Cognition consortium (STROKOG) to identify differences with other high and low-income countries.