The use of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and diuretics is associated with a reduced incidence of impairment on cognition in elderly women.

Full Abstract

The effects of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACE-Is) and diuretics (used as antihypertensive agents) on global and domain-specific cognitive decline were evaluated in 326 non-demented community-dwelling participants over the age of 70 years in the Women's Health and Aging Study II. Time-dependent Cox proportional hazards regression analysis was used for evaluating the association between parameters. The use of ACE-I for more than 3 years was associated with reduced incidence of impairment on Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Trail Making Test-Part A and Part B (TMT, Parts A and B), Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Immediate Recall (HVLT-I), and Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Delayed Recall (HVLT-D). The use of diuretics for more than 3 years was associated with reduced incidence of impairment on MMSE, TMT, Parts A and B, HVLT-I, and (HVLT-D). The presence of vascular disease did not make any difference to these effects. Therefore, the use of ACE-Is or diuretics was associated with reduced incidence of impairment of both global and domain-specific cognition in elderly women, and may help delay progression to dementia.

Author information

Author/s: Yasar, S (S); Zhou, J (J); Varadhan, R (R); Carlson, M C (MC);

Affiliation: Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology, Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. syasar(-atsign-)jhmi.edu

Grants: R01 AG11703-10 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS) ; R01 AG19825-02 (Agency:NIA NIH HHS)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Comparative Study; Journal Article; Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Journal: Clinical pharmacology and therapeutics (Clin Pharmacol Ther), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2008-Jul; vol 84 (issue 1) : pp 119-26

Dates: Created 2008/06/19; Completed 2008/07/07;

PMID: 18231116, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

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