An asymptomatic narrowing of a neck artery could be linked to mental woes.
Those who had a narrowing of the carotid artery were more likely to experience "learning, memory, thinking and decision-making" when compared with those who did not, an American Academy of Neurology news release reported.
"To date, the focus of diagnosis and management of carotid artery blockages has been prevention of stroke since that was the only harm that these blockages were thought to cause to patients," Brajesh K. Lal, MD, with the VA Maryland Health Care System's Baltimore VA Medical Center and the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, said in the news release. "These results underscore the importance of assessing the status of memory and thinking in people with carotid artery narrowing."
This type of artery narrowing is usually a result of plaque buildup; this can restrict blood flow to the brain.
The make their findings researchers looked at 67 people with a condition called asymptomatic carotid stenosis (ACS), these patients had a "50-percent reduction in the diameter of the artery," the news release reported. The team also looked at 60 people who had "vascular risk factors" but not the condition itself.
The team tested the participants' mental capacities in fields including: "processing speed, learning, memory, decision-making and language," the news release reported.
The researchers concluded people in the ACS group tended to perform more poorly on the mental test than those who did not have the condition.
"If these findings are confirmed in larger studies, they hold significant implications for new treatment targets and open the door for more questions such as: should these patients be treated more aggressively with medications, cognitive rehabilitation, or even surgery to open up the artery," Lal said. "I anticipate a large number of follow-up studies searching for causes and the best treatment option for this newly identified morbidity associated with carotid narrowing."
