Connections Between Hypertension, Atherosclerosis, Acute Myocardial Infarction, and Risk of Dementia

Abstract

As the percentage of geriatric patients continues to increase in both the United States and globally, the prevalence of both cardiovascular disease and dementia continues to climb. Both dementia and cardiovascular disease are devastating diseases that impose a significant burden economically, socially, and medically on both a local and systemic level. The most common fatal manifestation of cardiovascular disease is acute myocardial infarction, responsible for death in more than 80% of patients with cardiovascular disease. Prominent risk factors for acute myocardial infarction including hypertension and atherosclerosis have been independently associated with an increased risk for cognitive decline and all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease, separate from vascular dementia. Acute myocardial infarction itself has also been independently associated with an increased incidence of all-cause dementia and Alzheimer disease. It is based on the connection between acute myocardial infarction, its major risk factors, and the incidence of dementia that it is of importance to define and explore the potential role that therapies for these conditions, as well as acute myocardial infarction itself, may play in mitigating the risk of dementia onset and severity. In this review, we assess current therapeutics that exist for atherosclerosis, hypertension and acute myocardial infarction that have been demonstrated to reduce later risk of dementia, and explore the mechanism that underlies the association between the incidence of acute myocardial infarction and the risk of dementia.