Clinical Determinants of Dementia and Mild Cognitive Impairment following Ischaemic Stroke: The Sydney Stroke Study

Background: Dementia following stroke is common but its determinants are still incompletely understood. Methods: In the Sydney Stroke Study, we performed detailed neuropsychological and medical-psychiatric assessments on 169 patients aged 50–85 years, 3–6 months after a stroke, and 103 controls with a majority of both groups undergoing MRI brain scans. Stroke subjects were diagnosed as having vascular mild cognitive impairment (VaMCI) or vascular dementia (VaD) or no cognitive impairment by consensus. Demographic, functional, cerebrovascular risk factors and neuroimaging parameters were examined as determinants of dementia using planned logistic regression. Results: 21.3% of subjects were diagnosed with VaD, with one case in those aged 50–59 years, 24% in those aged 60–69 years and 23% in those 70–79 years. There was no difference by sex. The prevalence of VaMCI was 36.7%. VaD subjects