Heart-Heath Intervention reduces cognitive decline in mild cognitive impairment of the cerebrovascular type: a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial (P7.119)

Objective: Clinical trial of the Heart-Health Nursing Intervention to modify vascular risk factors for cognitive decline in subjects with mild cognitive impairment due to cerebrovascular disease: preliminary results Background: Cerebrovascular disease is a major cause and comorbid pathology in community-based elderly populations. It is unknown whether aggressive risk factor modification can prevent further cognitive decline or allow improvement in cognitive function in such individuals. Design/Methods: Randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of the Heart-Health Intervention in subjects age >54 years with mild cognitive impairment presumed due to cerebrovascular disease. Subjects were enrolled and underwent cognitive testing at 6 month intervals, as well as brain imaging and CSF collection at baseline. Standard comparative statistics were used to assess efficacy of the Heart-Health nursing education intervention in the early stages of the trial. Results: Baseline MRI scans confirmed significant vascular pathology as responsible for the cognitive impairment in the subjects recruited. While Placebo treated subjects declined an average of 0.7 points annually on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment and 2.7 points on the California Verbal Learning Test trail 1-5 learning, subjects undergoing the Heart-Health Intervention improved on average 1.5 and 1.25 points on these tests respectively in the first 6 months of engagement in the trial (p<0.05). Conclusions: Aggressive risk factor modification and vascular risk education programming shows early benefit in a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial in subjects with mild cognitive impairment due to underlying cerebrovascular disease. The total duration of the trial is 36 months, and so it is unknown if the effects of the intervention will be sustained throughout the entire study treatment period. While these preliminary results are encouraging, completion of the trial is necessary to adequately judge the potential benefit of this intervention in preventing further cognitive decline and progression to fulminate vascular dementia. Disclosure: Dr. Jicha has received personal compensation for activities with Quintiles. Dr. Murphy has nothing to disclose. Dr. Biddle has nothing to disclose. Dr. Moser has nothing to disclose.