Markers of cardiac dysfunction such as
amino terminal pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NTpro-BNP) and high sensitivity cardiac
troponin T (hs-cTnT) may be associated with
dementia. However, limited data exist on their association with either pre-
dementia stages, that is,
cognitive impairment no
dementia (CIND), or the burden of
cerebrovascular diseases (CeVD).We therefore, examined the association of these
biomarkers of cardiac dysfunction with CeVD in both CIND and
dementia.A case-control study, with cases recruited from memory clinics and controls from memory clinics and community. All subjects underwent collection of blood samples, neuropsychological assessment, and neuroimaging. Subjects were classified as CIND and
dementia based on clinical criteria whilst significant CeVD was defined as the presence of cortical
infarcts and/or more than 2 lacunes and/or confluent white matter lesions in two regions of brain on Age-Related White Matter Changes Scale.We included a total of 35 controls (mean age: 65.9 years), 78 CIND (mean age: 70.2 years) and 80 cases with
dementia (mean age: 75.6 years). Plasma concentrations of hs-cTnT were associated significantly with CeVD in both CIND (odds ratios [OR]: 9.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.64-49.79) and
dementia (OR: 16.89; 95%CI: 2.02-142.67). In addition, NTpro-BNP was associated with
dementia with CeVD (OR: 7.74; 95%CI: 1.23-48.58). These associations were independent of other vascular risk factors.In this study, we showed that plasma
NTproBNP and hs-cTnT are associated with
dementia and CIND, only when accompanied by presence of CeVD.