Cognitive test scores declined with hypertension, retinopathy

Hypertension was related to lower scoring on cognitive tests, and that relationship was even more significant when the hypertensive patient also had retinopathy, a Turkish study found. Based on their findings, the study authors suggest that cognitive tests should be used in following patients with systemic hypertension.

Oguz Tekin and colleagues at the Ankara Numune Hospital examined the relationship between retinopathy status and cognitive function in hypertensive and normal subjects using the mini-mental state exam (MMSE). Subjects were categorized into three groups: 39 people served as controls, 32 were hypertensive without retinopathy and 25 were hypertensive with retinopathy.

Subjects with hypertension had significantly lower total MMSE scores than control patients. In addition, retinopathy significantly correlated with lower MMSE scores among the patients with hypertension. There was also a significant decrease in recall and total scores in the patients with hypertension and retinopathy in comparison with the control subjects.

The study is published in European Neurology.