CHRONIC OBSTRUCTIVE PULMONARY DISEASE AND COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS OF VASCULAR AND ALZHEIMER'S ORIGIN

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is frequent among elderly patients with dementia. The aim of our study was to examine cognitive functions of patients with COPD in cases with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), vascular dementia (VD) and mixed dementia (MD) and to compare them to those without COPD. Material and methods: We examined 48 patients with mild COPD (on average 77.43±7.87 years old; 21 males, 27 females, 8 with AD, 15 with VD and 25 with MD) and 98 patients with dementia but without COPD (77.43±7.87 years old, 27 males and 71 females; 30 with AD, 31 with VD and 27 with MD) at two step model (interval of 2 years) with the following neuropsychological battery: Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE), Isaac’s Set Test (IST), Literal fluency Test (LFT), Clock Drawing Test, 10 Words Test, Digit Symbol Substitution test (DSST), Digit Span Test (DST). Results: Patients with COPD showed more pronounced decreases on global cognitive function (MMSE), LFT, IST, short-term memory and allocable attention vs those without. We failed to find any cognitive differences between patients with and without COPD at AD group. Patients with COPD and VD had low results on IST, LFT, working memory, delayed recall and working memory than those with VD but without COPD, they also showed significantly more prominent decline on LFT and Short-term memory. Patients with COPD and MD showed more prominent decline of global cognition (measured by MMSE) than those without COPD. They also had worse results DST forward. Conclusions: COPD is associated with executive and memory changes and prominent deep white matter dysfunction. Patients with VD and MD and COPD are more vulnerable. It is unclear if COPD leads to COPD – associated cognitive changes or promotes other kinds of dementia.