Association of ankle-brachial index with cognitive decline in patients with lacunar infarction

Atherosclerosis is an important risk factor for cognitive decline. This study aimed to investigate the relationship of ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) with cognitive function in patients with lacunar infarction. We included records of consecutive patients with their first-ever acute stroke and a diagnosis of lacunar infarction through magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from July 1, 2011 to December 31, 2018. We excluded patients diagnosed with dementia, including strategic single-infarct dementia, before or after stroke onset. Moreover, we excluded patients with one or more microbleeds, severe white matter lesions, or severe medial temporal atrophy on MRI. For ABI, we used the lower ankle side and divided the results into ABI < 1.0 and ABI ≥ 1.0. For baPWV, we used the higher ankle side and divided the results into two groups based on the median value of the participants. We analyzed 176 patients with stroke (age 72.5 ± 11.4 years, 67 females). The median score on the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) was 27. The number of patients with ABI < 1.0 was 19 (10.8%). Univariate analysis revealed that the MMSE score was associated with age, body mass index, education, chronic kidney disease, periventricular hyperintensity, and ABI < 1.0 (p < 0.10), but not baPWV. Multivariate analysis revealed that body mass index (p = 0.039) and ABI < 1.0 (p = 0.015) were independently associated with the MMSE score. For patients with lacunar infarction, a lower ABI, but not a higher PWV, was associated with cognitive decline.