COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT, THEIR DYNAMICS AND STRUCTURE IN THE ACUTE AND RECOVERY PERIODS OF STROKE, DEPENDING ON ARTERIAL HYPERTENSION SEVERITY AND DURATION

Abstract

Relevance. Cognitive impairment is common in the post-stroke period. Different characteristics of arterial hypertension (AH), namely its severity, duration and variability of blood pressure, can affect the development of cognitive impairment in stroke patients.
 Objective: to investigate cognitive impairment, their dynamics and structure in acute and recovering stroke periods, depending on the arterial hypertension severity and duration.
 Materials and methods. 150 patients with a primary ischemic stroke and history of hypertension: 74 (49,3 %) women and 76 (50,7 %) men, the mean age (67,4±0,7) years have been examined. Neurological deficits was evaluated by the NIHSS scale. The cognitive status was evaluated by the MMSE scale at the end of an acute period of 21 days and 1 year. Diagnosis of hypertension was based on the clinical and instrumental examination results and medical documents. Daily blood pressure monitoring was using on admission and every 4 hours during 6 days of acute stroke stage. Mean SBP, mean DBP, maximum SBP and DBP, standard deviation (SD) of SBP and DBP were studied.
 Results. By the mean score on the MMSE scale, there are differences in patients during acute post-stroke period, depending on the severity of hypertension: 27,2±0,6 points in the case of hypertension stage 1, 24,3±0,6 in the case of hypertension stage 2 and 20,7±0,8 in case of AH stage 3, (p=0.001). By this indicator, patients with different AH duration were different: 26,4±0,9 points; 25,1±0,5 points; 20,5±0,7 points, respectively. The significance of these differences by the mean values of MMSE score was obtained in patients with a duration of AH less than 5 years and more than 10 years, as well as when comparing the group of "6-10 years" and "over 10 years" (p=0,001).
 Significant differences in the structure of cognitive deficits severity, depending on the hypertension stage and its duration, were observed only in patients with moderate and severe stroke (p=0,006).
 Cognitive deterioration a year after a stroke was observed in 40 (31,5 %) patients. They have significantly higher mean values SD 1-3, SD 1-6, SBP on the first day after a stroke, and duration of hypertension.
 Conclusions. The relationship between the degree of intellectual decline and the duration of hypertension (r=0,592, p=0,001), severity of hypertension (r=0,459, p=0,001) was found. The severity of the neurological deficiency affects the structure of cognitive impairment at discharge in patients with different severity and duration of hypertension, and higher mean values of the variability of blood pressure from 1 to 6 days, SBP on the first day after stroke and higher duration of hypertension in the history is associated with a negative dynamics of cognitive impairment in stroke patients in a year after stroke.