Post stroke dementia occurs in close temporal relationship with a thromboembolic or hemorrhagic stroke includes multi-infarct dementia and hemorrhage associated dementia.
Posts stroke dementia develops in up to one third of patients within the first year after the acute cerebrovascular event.
Stroke increases the risk of dementia by approximate 2-9 times. Post stroke dementia is considered to be the second most common type of dementia.
Presence of post stroke dementia reduces survival among stoke survivors and increases risk of long term stroke recurrence.
Risk factors for post stroke dementia include large and left side infarcts, large middle cerebral artery infarcts and previous strokes, bilateral infarcts, frontal infarcts, and hypertension. Other risk factors including high levels homocysteine levels, smoking have been variably related to post stroke dementia.
Diabetes, hyperlipidemia and arterial fibrillation were also found to be predictors for the development of post stroke dementia.
Hypertension, high homocysteine levels, and hypercholesterolemia correlate with dementia in logistic regression analysis.
The frequency of post stroke dementia vary from 12 to 32% within 3 months to one year after stroke. Determinants of post stroke dementia include high age, low education, pre-stroke dependency and cognitive impairment.
Post stroke dementia
