Homocysteine and cognitive disorders of postmenopausal women measured by a battery of computer tests--central nervous system vital signs.

The purpose of the study was the analysis of cognitive functions in postmenopausal women having different status of homocysteine levels by a battery of computer tests-central nervous system vital signs (CNS-VS). We examined whether homocysteine increases the risk of cognitive decline and which cognitive domains are more affected. We showed that the considerably better neurocognitive index was obtained by women with low homocysteine levels in comparison with those with hyperhomocysteinemia (p = 0.0017). Similarly, results were obtained in the field of executive functioning (p = 0.0011), complex attention (p = 0.0106), cognitive flexibility (p = 0.0016), and memory (p = 0.0145). Verbal memory and visual memory did not differ considerably among the studied groups. Also, we demonstrated that ε4/ε4 genotype was the most common (15.5 %) in women with hyperhomocysteinemia than in groups of patients with low (0 %) or normal (1.9 %) homocysteine levels. In summary, hyperhomocysteinemia was related with increased risk of decline in executive functioning, complex attention, cognitive flexibility, and memory in postmenopausal women.