Study on the correlation between cerebral hemodynamics and cognitive function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the characteristics of cerebral hemodynamics and its correlation with cognitive function in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Methods Two hundred outpatients with COPD and 200 sex-and age-matched outpatients over the same period were used as a control group.Monteal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) were used to evaluate the cognitive function.The mean flow velocity (Vm), pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI) and breath holding index (BHI) of bilateral middle cerebral artery (MCA) were examined by means of transcranial Doppler ultrasound in all subjects. Results The score of COPD group significantly was lower than that in control group [(22.95±3.71) scores vs (26.12±0.90) scores], the frequency of MoCA≤25 group was 21.5% in COPD group, significantly higher than that in control group (9.0%). Compared with control group, Vm [(53.31±0.96) cm/s vs (46.80±0.83) cm/s], BHI(1.21±0.72 vs 0.72±0.12) significantly decreased, and PI (0.83±0.04 vs 1.14±0.59), RI(0.52±0.04 vs 0.66±0.41) significantly increased in MoCA≤25 COPD group.Compared with MoCA>25 COPD group, BHI (0.98±0.91 vs 0.72±0.12) of MoCA≤25 COPD group significantly decreased, and PI (1.10±0.41 vs 1.14±0.59), RI (0.55±0.79 vs 0.66±0.41) significantly increased. Conclusions Cognitive function and cerebral hemodynamics in patients with COPD are impaired.PI has a positive correlation with the likelihood of cognitive impairment, howere, BHI has the opposite relationship. Key words: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Hemodynamics; Cognition impariment; Transcranial Doppler