Metabolic syndrome associated with silent brain infarction in elderly people
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Silent brain infarction (SBI) has been shown to be a predictor of clinical overt stroke or dementia. The study was aimed to examine the association between SBI and metabolic syndrome in 1254 healthy subjects aged ≥65 years, undergoing MRI. AHA/NHLBI-2005 criteria were used for the diagnosis of metabolic syndrome. The associations between the syndrome (at least three out of five cardiometabolic abnormalities) as well as its discrete defining components and SBI were studied after controlling for possible confounders. On MRI, 15.7% of study participants were found to have at least one SBI. Metabolic syndrome was significantly associated with SBI. Among individual metabolic syndrome components, a strong significance was observed between elevated blood pressure and SBI. Subjects presenting more metabolic syndrome components exhibited more prevalent and multiple SBIs. In conclusion, metabolic syndrome appears to be significantly associated with SBI in seemingly neurologically-healthy elderly adults. This positive trend between metabolic syndrome components and SBI could be relevant in risk stratification of elderly subjects for prediction and prevention of future stroke.
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