NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Individuals with metabolic syndrome -- a cluster of risk factors for heart disease and diabetes -- may also have an increased risk of developing "vascular" dementia, but not Alzheimer's disease.

Vascular dementia, the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease, is a step-wise deterioration in intellectual powers that becomes apparent as different areas of the brain are damaged by a loss of blood supply. Vascular dementia is often associated stroke; high blood pressure and smoking are well known risk factors.

Metabolic syndrome is typically diagnosed when a person has three or more of the following conditions: abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, low levels of "good" HDL cholesterol and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat).

"If metabolic syndrome were also associated with increased risk of developing dementia, the screening and management of its components might offer avenues for prevention of cardiovascular disease and dementia as well," Dr. Christelle Raffaitin of University Hospital Bordeaux, Pessac and colleagues wrote in the journal Diabetes Care.

"However, the association between metabolic syndrome, or its individual components, and dementia has received little attention," they point out.

In their 4-year study, 7087 older adults without dementia at the outset completed at least one follow-up examination.

The researchers report that roughly 16 percent of the participants had the metabolic syndrome, which independently increased the risk of vascular dementia, but not Alzheimer's disease.

However, the only individual component of the metabolic syndrome that was significantly associated with vascular dementia was high triglyceride levels.

A significant association was also observed between diabetes and vascular dementia. Impaired fasting glucose, a precursor to full blown diabetes, was not associated with any type of dementia.

This study "emphasizes the need for detection and treatment of vascular risk factors in older persons in order to prevent the likelihood of clinical dementia," Dr. Raffaitin told Reuters Health.

SOURCE: Diabetes Care, January 2009.

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