Di Bonito P, Di Fraia L, Di Gennaro L, Vitale A, Lapenta M, Scala A, Iardino M R, Cusati B, Attino L, Capaldo B
Department of Internal Medicine, S. Maria delle Grazie Pozzuoli Hospital, Via Domitiana Loc. La Schiana, 80078 Pozzuoli, Naples, Italy.
Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2007 Mar;17(3):203-8. doi: 10.1016/j.numecd.2005.07.011. Epub 2006 Mar 20.
The present study was undertaken to evaluate the impact of impaired fasting glucose (IFG), insulin resistance (IR) and hyperhomocysteinaemia (Hhcy) on cognitive function (CF) in a sample of non-diabetic elderly subjects.
One hundred and eighty-two non-diabetic subjects, aged > or = 65 years, without signs of previous stroke were included in the study. CF was evaluated by the Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, corrected for age and education. Since diagnostic criteria for IFG have been recently lowered from 110 to 100 mg/dl, subjects were categorized according to old (IFG1997) and new (IFG2003) criteria. IR and Hhcy were defined by the upper quartile of insulin (11.0 UI/L) and Hcy (18.6 micromol/L) distribution, respectively. The frequency of IFG1997, Hhcy, and IR, but not of IFG2003, showed a linear trend across tertiles of MMSE (p<0.001). The odds ratio (95% CI) for impaired CF (MMSE<24.3) was 9.08 (2.97-27.74) for IFG1997, 3.66 (1.28-10.45) for Hhcy, 2.83 (1.25-6.37) for IR and 1.32 (0.61-2.89) for IFG2003.
Our study shows that IFG1997, Hhcy and IR are powerful metabolic markers of impaired CF among elderly people.
