Levels of non-high-density-lipoprotein cholesterol are positively correlated with the risk of cognitive impairment in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage stroke

Abstract

Background

Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is one of the most common strokes, especially in developing countries. Recently, level of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) has been implicated to be a better indicator for several lipid-related disorders. However, whether non-HDL-C can be used as an indicator for the risk of cognitive impairment in ICH patients remains to be elucidated.

Methods

In this study, we performed a retrospective study on patients with ICH treated at our institution to investigate the association between the level of non-HDL-C and various neuropsychological assessments, including mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), activity of daily living scale (ADL), neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Hamilton depression rating scale 21 (HAMD21).

Results

We found that all scores of the tested assessments were significantly altered in ICH patients with a high non-HDL-C level. In addition, we revealed that non-HDL-C was negatively correlated with MMSE and MoCA scores and was positively correlated with ADL, NPI and HAMD21 scores.

Conclusions

Our study suggests that non-HDL-C level can be used as a potential indicator for the risk of cognitive impairment in ICH patients.

Keywords:

• Lipoprotein
• cholesterol
• stroke
• cognitive impairment

Authors' contributions

ZW, ML and YS collected, analyzed and interpreted the data. RP designed the study and wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

The study was approved by the ethical committee of The Second Affiliated Hospital of Xiamen Medical College. Consent has been obtained from all participated patients. All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

The purpose and design of the study was carefully explained to all individual participants accompanied by their close relatives before verbal consent was obtained according to the guidance provided by the ethical committee. Verbal consent was selected due to the limited writing ability of some participants. This procedure has been approved by the ethical committee.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).