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

作者：Cameron D. Owens, Camila Bonin Pinto, Péter Mukli, Z Szarvas, Anna Péterfi, Sam Detwiler, L. Olay, Ann Louise Olson, Guangpu Li, Verónica Galván, Angelia Kirkpatrick, Priya Balasubramanian, Stefano Tarantini, Anna Csiszár, Zoltán Ungvári, Călin I. Prodan, Andriy Yabluchanskiy · 发表于：PLoS ONE · 年份：2023 · DOI：10.1371/journal.pone.0289508 · 被引用次数：16 · 研究领域：Dementia and Cognitive Impairment Research、Long-Term Effects of COVID-19、Intensive Care Unit Cognitive Disorders

INTRODUCTION: 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. METHODOLOGY: 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 ...