• Biol Sex Differ · Mar 2019

    Sex and genetic differences in postoperative cognitive dysfunction: a longitudinal cohort analysis.

    • Katie J Schenning, Charles F Murchison, Nora C Mattek, Jeffrey A Kaye, and Joseph F Quinn.
    • Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Mail Code L459, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd, Portland, OR, 97239, USA. malcore@ohsu.edu.
    • Biol Sex Differ. 2019 Mar 29; 10 (1): 14.

    BackgroundPostoperative cognitive dysfunction (POCD) is a common postoperative complication experienced by patients aged 65 years and older, and these older adults comprise more than one third of the surgical patients in the USA. Because not everyone with a history of exposure to surgery and anesthesia develops POCD, there are likely major biological risk factors involved. There are important gaps in our knowledge regarding whether genetic makeup, biological sex, or other Alzheimer's disease risk factors predispose older adults to developing POCD. We set out to determine whether biological sex and Apolipoprotein E-ε4 (APOE4) carrier status increase the risk of developing POCD in older adults.MethodsWe performed a cohort analysis of 1033 participants of prospective longitudinal aging studies. Participants underwent regular cognitive test batteries and we compared the annual rate of change over time in various cognitive measures in the women exposed to surgery and general anesthesia compared to the men exposed to surgery and general anesthesia. Mixed-effects statistical models were used to assess the relationship between biological sex, APOE4 carrier status, surgery and anesthesia exposure, and the rate of change in cognitive test scores.ResultsWhen comparing all men (n = 89) and women (n = 164) who had surgery, there were no significant sex differences in postoperative cognitive outcomes. However, men with an APOE4 allele performed significantly worse on cognitive testing following surgery and anesthesia than women APOE4 carriers, even after adjusting for age, education level, and comorbidities.ConclusionsOlder men with APOE4 allele may be more vulnerable to postoperative cognitive dysfunction than older women with APOE4 allele.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…