Journal Article

Vascular mechanisms leading to progression of mild cognitive impairment to dementia after COVID-19: Protocol and methodology of a prospective longitudinal observational study

Owens, Cameron D., Ungvari, Zoltan, Detwiler, Sam, Szarvas, Zsofia, Galvan, Veronica, Olson, Ann L., Csiszar, Anna, Kirkpatrick, Angelia C., Yabluchanskiy, Andriy, Tarantini, Stefano, Olay, Lauren, Bonin Pinto, Camila, Balasubramanian, Priya, Li, Guangpu, Peterfi, Anna, Prodan, Calin I., Mukli, Peter

2023

Overview

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a prodromal stage to dementia, affecting up to 20% of the aging population worldwide. Patients with MCI have an annual conversion rate to dementia of 15-20%. Thus, conditions that increase the conversion from MCI to dementia are of the utmost public health concern. The COVID-19 pandemic poses a significant impact on our aging population with cognitive decline as one of the leading complications following recovery from acute infection. Recent findings suggest that COVID-19 increases the conversion rate from MCI to dementia in older adults. Hence, we aim to uncover a mechanism for COVID-19 induced cognitive impairment and progression to dementia to pave the way for future therapeutic targets that may mitigate COVID-19 induced cognitive decline. A prospective longitudinal study is conducted at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. Patients are screened in the Department of Neurology and must have a formal diagnosis of MCI, and MRI imaging prior to study enrollment. Patients who meet the inclusion criteria are enrolled and followed-up at 18-months after their first visit. Visit one and 18-month follow-up will include an integrated and cohesive battery of vascular and cognitive measurements, including peripheral endothelial function (flow-mediated dilation, laser speckle contrast imaging), retinal and cerebrovascular hemodynamics (dynamic vessel retinal analysis, functional near-infrared spectroscopy), and fluid and crystalized intelligence (NIH-Toolbox, n-back). Multiple logistic regression will be used for primary longitudinal data analysis to determine whether COVID-19 related impairment in neurovascular coupling and increases in white matter hyperintensity burden contribute to progression to dementia.

• Publisher: Public Library of Science,Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subject: Aged / Aging / Biology and Life Sciences / Brain / Cognition disorders / Cognitive ability / Cognitive Dysfunction - epidemiology / Complications / Complications and side effects / Conversion / COVID-19 / COVID-19 - epidemiology / Data analysis / Dementia / Dementia - epidemiology / Dementia disorders / Development and progression / Diagnosis / Disease Progression / Epidemics / Hemodynamics / Humans / Impairment / Infection / Infrared analysis / Infrared spectra / Infrared spectroscopy / Longitudinal Studies / Medical imaging / Medical research / Medicine and Health Sciences / Medicine, Experimental / Methods / Mild cognitive impairment / Mortality / Near infrared radiation / Near infrared spectroscopy / Neurology / Neuropsychological Tests / Observational studies / Observational Studies as Topic / Older people / Pandemics / Population decline / Prospective Studies / Public health / Research and Analysis Methods / Retina / Risk factors / Study Protocol / Substantia alba / Therapeutic targets