Nilsson Karin, Gustafson Lars, Hultberg Björn
Department of Psychogeriatrics, Clinical Science, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
Dement Geriatr Cogn Dis Extra. 2013 Jan;3(1):16-24. doi: 10.1159/000345981. Epub 2013 Feb 16.
Patients with vascular dementia (VaD) exhibit particularly elevated levels of plasma total homocysteine (tHcy) compared to patients with other psychogeriatric diseases.
We investigated the main determinants (age, renal impairment, cobalamin/folate status and presence of extracerebral vascular disease) of plasma tHcy in 525 patients with VaD. Furthermore, 270 patients with depression were used as a reference group to reveal the potential specificity of elevated plasma tHcy in patients with VaD.
Elevated plasma tHcy levels in patients with VaD could only partly be attributed to cobalamin/folate deficiency or renal impairment. Plasma tHcy might also be related to the vascular disease process since patients with depression and vascular disease exhibited similar plasma tHcy levels to patients with VaD.
Our findings suggest that elevated plasma tHcy might be a sensitive marker for the vascular disease process in patients with VaD and that the level also is a reflection of changes in the other main determinants of plasma tHcy.
与患有其他老年精神疾病的患者相比，血管性痴呆（VaD）患者的血浆总同型半胱氨酸（tHcy）水平特别高。
我们调查了525例VaD患者血浆tHcy的主要决定因素（年龄、肾功能损害、钴胺素/叶酸状态和脑外血管疾病的存在）。此外，将270例抑郁症患者作为参照组，以揭示VaD患者血浆tHcy升高的潜在特异性。
VaD患者血浆tHcy水平升高只能部分归因于钴胺素/叶酸缺乏或肾功能损害。血浆tHcy也可能与血管疾病进程有关，因为患有抑郁症和血管疾病的患者与VaD患者的血浆tHcy水平相似。
我们的研究结果表明，血浆tHcy升高可能是VaD患者血管疾病进程的一个敏感标志物，并且该水平也是血浆tHcy其他主要决定因素变化的一种反映。
