Detection of cerebral aging, an absolute need:: Predictive value of cognitive status

Cognitive performance is predictive of functional status, morbidity and mortality in the elderly. In the SYST-EUR study, the Vascular Dementia Project run on 3,111 subjects 60 years old and over, with isolated systolic hypertension, has shown that the cognitive status as measured by the MMSE was inversely correlated with systolic blood pressure (p < 0.001) and age (p < 0.001) and positively correlated with the level of education (p < 0.001). It is significantly lower in patients with cardiovascular complications (p = 0.0001). Moderate alcohol consumption is linked to a higher MMSE score in women (p < 0.001) but not in men. In this study, the incidence of dementia is low and significantly related to the baseline value of the MMSE score and further analysis will show the influence of the treatment of systolic hypertension with calcium antagonists as first step on this incidence.