De Carolis Antonella, Giubilei Franco, Caselli Giulio, Casolla Barbara, Cavallari Michele, Vanacore Nicola, Leonori Rita, Scrocchia Ilaria, Fersini Anna, Quercia Augusto, Orzi Francesco
Department of Neuroscience, Mental Health and Sensory Organs, University of Rome La Sapienza, Rome.
Dement Geriatr Cogn Dis Extra. 2011 Jan;1(1):402-8. doi: 10.1159/000333079. Epub 2011 Nov 16.
Subjects with ischemic lesions have an increased risk of dementia. In addition, Alzheimer's disease (AD) and vascular cognitive impairment share many risk factors. These observations suggest that different diseases that cause altered blood perfusion of the brain or hypoxia promote AD neurodegeneration. In this case-control, cross-sectional study, we sought to test the hypothesis that hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline.
We looked for altered neuropsychological performance in subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) without apparent cardio- or cerebrovascular diseases or risk factors for atherosclerosis. A selected, homogeneous group of workers from two ceramic factories in a small town of central Italy was enrolled in this study.
The COPD patients had a slightly, but significantly worse performance than controls in a number of neuropsychological tests.
The findings are consistent with the working hypothesis that chronic hypoxia facilitates cognitive decline.
患有缺血性病变的受试者患痴呆症的风险增加。此外，阿尔茨海默病（AD）和血管性认知障碍有许多共同的风险因素。这些观察结果表明，导致大脑血液灌注改变或缺氧的不同疾病会促进AD神经退行性变。在这项病例对照横断面研究中，我们试图检验缺氧促进认知衰退这一假设。
我们在没有明显心血管或脑血管疾病或动脉粥样硬化风险因素的慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD）患者中寻找神经心理表现的改变。从意大利中部一个小镇的两家陶瓷厂挑选出一组同质的工人参与本研究。
在多项神经心理测试中，COPD患者的表现略逊于对照组，但差异有统计学意义。
这些发现与慢性缺氧促进认知衰退这一工作假设相符。
