Association between diastolic blood pressure and lower hemoglobin A1C and frontal brain atrophy in elderly subjects with diabetes mellitus.

摘要

To the Editor: There is growing evidence that diabetes mell-itus increases the risk of dementia for older people, and several studies have reported an association between diabetes mellitus and brain atrophy.1"4 Moreover, hippocampal and amygdalar atrophy in diabetes mellitus have recently been shown to be associated with insulin resistance. Because the hippocampus is a key structure for memory formation, the degree of brain atrophy of the hippocampus may partially account for neuropsychological deficits in the memory of diabetic patients. In addition to a weakened declarative memory, diabetes mellitus is often associated with impairment of cognitive speed and attention, which are frontal lobe-related brain functions,5 although it remains to be established whether morphometric changes occur in the frontal brain. This report concerns a preliminary study to investigate whether frontal brain atrophy (FBA) increases in elderly people with diabetes mellitus and to explore the factors leading to the development of FBA.