Cognitive Function and Calcium-Related Factors in Elderly Female Subjects

Abstract

Calcium (Ca)-related factors were evaluated as possible related factors to senile dementia in 60 elderly female subjects(mean age±SD: 79±7 years). These subjects were classified by their score on Hasegawa's Dementia Screening Scale, into a non-dementia group (score 22-32.5, n=18) and a dementia group (0-21.5, n=42), and the latter group was further classified by ischemic score into Alzheimer-type dementia (n=22) and vascular-type dementia (n=20). There was no significant difference in the mean values of age or serum creatinine among the three groups. In the Alzheimer-type dementia group, the mean serum level of Ca was significantly lower, and the serum level of parathyroid hormone (PTH) and urinary Ca were significantly higher than those in the non-dementia group, respectively. In the group of vascular-type dementia, the mean serum level of calcitonin (CT) was slightly, but not significantly, lower than that in the non-dementia group. The score for cognitive subjects negatively correlated significantly with the values of serum PTH (r=-0.49, p<0.05) and urinary Ca excretion (r=-0.38, p<0.05), respectively, and positively correlated significantly with that of serum 1, 25-dihydroxyvitamin D [1, 25(OH)₂D] (r=0.31, p<0.05), in the combined group of non-dementia and Alzheimer-type dementia, and positively correlated significantly with the serum CT level (r=0.40, p<0.05) in the combined group of non-dementia and vascular-type dementia. These results suggest that Ca-regulating hormones PTH, CT and 1, 25-(OH)₂D are important in different ways for the cognitive state in senile dementia.