Usefulness of measuring serum markers in addition to comprehensive geriatric assessment for cognitive impairment and depressive mood in the elderly

Abstract

Background: To determine the utility of various serum markers for assessment of cognitive and mental functions in the elderly, we performed a Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) in the out-patient clinic in Kyoto University Hospital. Methods: We measured serum levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), DHEA-S, malondialdehyde low-density lipoproteins (MDA-LDL), and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) in 145 patients to find the association of these markers with activities of daily living (ADL), cognitive impairment and depressive symptoms. Results: We found that the levels of hs-CRP were significantly higher in patients with lower scores in Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Kohs block design test, and higher scores in the button test, indicating that hs-CRP may be associated with the cognitive function in elderly patients. We also found that the levels of DHEA-S were lower in patients with higher scores (9 or over) on the Geriatric Depression Scale-15 (GDS), indicating that DHEA-S may be associated with depressive mode in elderly patients. Total cholesterol, high-density cholesterol (HDL-C), or albumin were not statistically different in each group studied. Conclusions: Thus, our data indicate that measuring hs-CRP and DHEA-S would be helpful to assess the cognitive function and depressive symptoms in elderly patients.