Ranjan Duara, M.D.

The Relation of the Metabolic Syndrome of MCI and Dementia in Hispanics and Non-Hispanic Elderly

Insulin resistance has been shown to lead to the so called "metabolic syndrome" It is characterized by the clustering of several commonly occurring phenomena including abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, low high-density lipoprotein (HDL) level, hypertension, and hyperglycemia. Individual elements of the metabolic syndrome have been found to be risk factors for cognitive impairment and vascular and degenerative dementia. In comparable age groups the metabolic syndrome has been found to be about 50% higher in Hispanic than in white non-Hispanic individuals in the US. It is therefore of great importance to evaluate the relative risk posed by the metabolic syndrome to cognitive impairment and dementia in Hispanic elderly subjects. The study proposes to:

1. determine the exact frequency of the individual elements of the metabolic syndrome in Hispanic elderly,
2. to diagnose specific subtypes of cognitive impairments that might be related to metabolic syndrome,
3. to establish a relationship between types of cognitive abilities and blood protein markers of dementia
4. and to determine if the severity of the metabolic syndrome is reflected in a proportional increase of those biomarkers.