Individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) often complain about their memory and show mild cognitive deficits on objective cognitive tests, but their cognitive impairment is not severe enough to qualify for dementia. In a recent study, researchers have found that elevated fasting blood glucose increases the risk of mild cognitive impairment. The study findings were published in the journal frontiers in Endocrinology on November 16, 2021.
Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between normal elderly people and dementia, with a higher risk of dementia transition. At present, other advanced biomarkers, such as MRI and PET, are still under investigation for the diagnosis, grading, classification and prognosis of MCI. However, there is still little research on serum-based biomarkers that can be easily obtained through minimally invasive sample techniques for diagnosing MCI and assessing treatment response. Therefore, Dr Lin Sun and her team conducted a study to investigate whether routine blood and blood biochemical markers could be used to predict the onset of MCI.
The researchers obtained data from the prospective and observational cohort study on the brain health of 1015 elderly in Shanghai. Based on clinical evaluation and the scores of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), they divided elders into the MCI (n=444) and cognitively normal groups (n=571). They evaluated their fasting blood routine and blood biochemical indexes and collected their general demographic data by using a standard questionnaire.
Key findings of the study:
Using binary logistic regression analysis, and after controlling several variables such as age and education, the researchers found that red blood cell count and fasting blood glucose were the influencing factors of MCI.
However, as the area under the ROC curve of MCI predicted by red blood cell count was less than 0.5, they concluded that elevated fasting blood glucose was the risk factor of MCI and had a mild predictive effect.
The authors wrote, "To my knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate an inverse association between elevated fasting glucose and MCI."
They concluded, "Elevated fasting blood glucose may be a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment, but the above conclusions need to be verified by longitudinal studies."
For further information:
DOI: 10.3389/fendo.2021.739257