Coronary artery disease and plasma apolipoprotein E4 in mild cognitive impairment

Background: atherosclerosis and apolipoprotein e4 (apoe4) are known risks for dementia. we sought to evaluate the relationship between coronary atherosclerosis and apoe4 with mild cognitive impairment (mci). methods: in a case-control study, subjects with age more than 60 years and recent coronary angiography were evaluated by mini-mental state examination and neuropsychiatry unit cognitive assessment tool (nucog) to find the patients with mci (n = 40) and the controls with normal cognition (n = 40). coronary angiography records were re-assessed to find the severity of coronary artery disease by the gensini scores. plasma levels of apoe4 were measured. results: there were no-significant difference between the 2 groups regarding the plasma apoe4 levels (p = 0.706) and the gensini scores (p = 0.236). associations between the gensini scores and the nucog scores in the mci group (r = −0.196, p = 0.225) and the control group (r = 0.189, p = 0.243) were not significant. however, the interaction effect between the gensini and the nucog scores based on allocation to the control or the patient groups showed statistically significant difference (f(1,67) = 4.84, p = 0.031). conclusion: although atherosclerosis has been considered as known risk factor for dementia and mci, this study could not reveal that coronary atherosclerosis-related to declining in cognitive functioning. there was no significant association between plasma apoe4 levels and mci.