Abstract

Aim: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by a progressive and irreversible deterioration of memory and cognitive functions and is the leading cause of senile dementia. Recently, there is increasing evidence suggesting a role for vascular risk factors in disease pathogenesis. The aim of this study is to investigate the frequency of vascu-lar risk factors and their correlation with the disease severity in the patients with Alzheimer’s disease in our clinic. Material and Method: Information of demographic features such as age, gender, education and vascular risk factors with fasting plasma total cholesterol, LDL, HDL and triglycerides were gathered from the patient registry retrospectively. The correlation between these features and Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) score, indicating the disease severity, were evaluated. Findings: A total of 111 patients with Alzheimer’s disease, registered in Dementia Unit in Tepecik Research and Training Hospital were included in the study. No correlation between demographic features, vascular risk factors and the severity of disease were found (p>0.05). HDL cholesterol was found to be negatively correlated with MMSE score (t: -2.38, 95%CI: -0.19; -0.02, p: 0.019), but total cholesterol, LDL and triglycerides were not correlated with the disease severity. Conclusion: Our study implies the role of HDL cholesterol in AD pathogenesis in concordance with the previous studies. It is crucial to clarify the disease pathogenesis and risk factors of AD in order to identify the under risk individuals and early diagnose the disease. Thus, further clinical prospective studies with larger patient groups are needed.