Since dementia is not one specific disease, nor is it provoked by a single, common cause, patients, families, and healthcare practitioners can become overwhelmed by the complexity of lifestyle modifications aimed at prevention. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the main cause of dementia, and the hippocampus is especially vulnerable to damage at early stages of AD since it is a critical area of the brain involved in learning and short- and long-term memory.

According to lead study author Dr. Esther J.M. de Brouwer from the Department of Geriatrics at the University Medical Center in Utrecht, in The Netherlands, “We know that calcifications in the hippocampus are common, especially with increasing age.” The research team set out to identify risk factors for hippocampal calcifications and to investigate whether there is an association with cognitive function.

The study was conducted through retrospective examination of 1991 adult patients seen at a memory clinic at a general hospital in The Netherlands with the mean age of 78 years (range 45–96 years) with 380 (19.1%) exhibiting hippocampal calcifications with statistical calculations supporting an association of these calcifications with older age (odds ratio [OR] per year, 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.03, 1.06), diabetes mellitus (OR, 1.50; 95% CI: 1.12, 2.00), and smoking (OR, 1.49; 95% CI: 1.05, 2.10).

Employing logistic and linear regression, all individuals enrolled in the study underwent a standard diagnostic work-up, including cognitive tests and brain CT screenings, for vascular risk factors such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and smoking. Although there was no association found in this study between presence and severity of hippocampal calcifications and impaired cognitive function, it was reported that older age, diabetes mellitus, and smoking were associated with an increased risk of hippocampal calcifications.

There is evidence to suggest that hippocampal calcifications are a hallmark of vascular disease. “It is well-known that smoking and diabetes are risk factors for cardiovascular disease,” Dr. de Brouwer adds. Because the lack of healthy controls in this study may have contributed to the lack of anticipated association, the team plans to expand this research to include other groups to investigate fully the impact of these calcium deposits in the brain.

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