Coronary artery bypass graft surgery and dementia risk in the cardiovascular health study

Journal article

INTRODUCTION: The association between history of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) and dementia risk remains unclear. METHODS: We conducted a prospective cohort analysis using data on 3155 elderly adults free from prevalent dementia from the US population-based Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS) with adjudicated incident all-cause dementia, Alzheimer disease (AD), vascular dementia (VaD), and mixed dementia. RESULTS: In the CHS, the hazard ratio (HR) for all-cause dementia was 1.93 [95% confidence interval (CI), 1.36-2.74] for those with CABG history compared with those with no CABG history after adjustment for potential confounders. Similar HRs were observed for AD (HR=1.71; 95% CI, 0.98-2.98), VaD (HR=1.42; 95% CI, 0.56-3.65), and mixed dementia (HR=2.73; 95% CI, 1.55-4.80). The same pattern of results was observed when these CHS findings were pooled with a prior prospective study, the pooled HRs were 1.96 (95% CI, 1.42-2.69) for all-cause dementia, 1.71 (95% CI, 1.04-2.79) for AD and 2.20 (95% CI, 0.78-6.19) for VaD. DISCUSSION: Our results suggest CABG history is associated with long-term dementia risk. Further investigation is warranted to examine the causal mechanisms which may explain this relationship or whether the association reflects differences in coronary artery disease severity..

Authors: Kuźma, E; Airdrie, J; Littlejohns, T; Lourida, I; Thompson-Coon, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
• Journal: Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders
• Volume: 31
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 120–127
• Publication date: 2017-03-03
• Acceptance date: 2017-01-16
• DOI: 10.1097/WAD.0000000000000191
• EISSN: 1546-4156
• ISSN: 0893-0341
• Language: English
• Keywords: Alzheimer disease; dementia; coronary artery bypass graft surgery; vascular dementia; mixed dementia