Circulating Progenitor Cells and Cognitive Impairment in Men and Women with Coronary Artery Disease.

BACKGROUND: Circulating progenitor cells (CPC) have been associated with memory function and cognitive impairment in healthy adults. However, it is unclear whether such associations also exist in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between CPCs and memory performance among individuals with CAD. METHODS: We assessed cognitive function in 509 patients with CAD using the verbal and visual Memory subtests of the Wechsler memory scale-IV and the Trail Making Test parts A and B. CPCs were enumerated with flow cytometry as CD45med/CD34+ blood mononuclear cells, those co-expressing other epitopes representing populations enriched for hematopoietic and endothelial progenitors. RESULTS: After adjusting for demographic and cardiovascular risk factors, lower number of endothelial progenitor cell counts were independently associated with lower visual and verbal memory scores (p for all < 0.05). There was a significant interaction in the magnitude of this association with race (p < 0.01), such that the association of verbal memory scores with endothelial progenitor subsets was present in Black but not in non-Black participants. No associations were present with the hematopoietic progenitor-enriched cells or with the Trail Making Tests. CONCLUSION: Lower numbers of circulating endothelial progenitor cells are associated with cognitive impairment in patients with CAD, suggesting a protective effect of repair/regeneration processes in the maintenance of cognitive status. Impairment of verbal memory function was more strongly associated with lower CPC counts in Black compared to non-Black participants with CAD. Whether strategies designed to improve regenerative capacity will improve cognition needs further study.

Living in Food Deserts and Adverse Cardiovascular Outcomes in Patients With Cardiovascular Disease.

Background Food deserts ( FDs ), defined as low-income communities with limited access to healthy food, are a growing public health concern. We evaluated the impact of living in FDs on incident cardiovascular events. Methods and Results We recruited 4944 subjects (age 64±12, 64% male) undergoing cardiac catheterization into the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank. Using the US Department of Agriculture definition of FD , we determined whether their residential addresses had (1) poor access to healthy food, (2) low income, or (3) both (= FD ). Subjects were prospectively followed for a median of 3.2 years for myocardial infarction (MI) and death. Fine and Gray's subdistribution hazard models for MI and Cox proportional hazard models for death/ MI were used to examine the association between area characteristics ( FD , poor access, and low income) and the rates of adverse events after adjusting for traditional risk factors. A total of 981 (20%) lived in FDs and had a higher adjusted risk of MI (subdistribution hazard ratio, 1.44 [95% CI, 1.06-1.95]) than those living in non- FDs . In a multivariate analysis including both food access and area income, only living in a low-income area was associated with a higher adjusted risk of MI (subdistribution hazard ratio, 1.40 [1.06-1.85]) and death/ MI (hazard ratio, 1.18 [1.02-1.35]) while living in a poor-access area was not significantly associated with either (subdistribution hazard ratio, 1.05 [0.80-1.38] and hazard ratio, 0.99 [0.87-1.14], respectively). Conclusions Living in an FD is associated with a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular events in those with coronary artery disease. Specifically, low area income of FDs , not poor access to food, was significantly associated with worse outcomes.