Orang dengan penyakit jantung bawaan (PJK) ringan hingga sedang tampaknya memiliki fungsi neurokognitif yang terganggu, yang mirip dengan defisit yang diamati pada anak-anak dengan PJK, sebuah penelitian telah menemukan. Defisit ini dikaitkan dengan peningkatan beban penyakit otak dan kardiovaskular.

The analysis included 1,020 adults with (A)CHD (median age, 57 years; 47.3 percent male) and 497,987 healthy controls (median age, 58 years; 45.5 percent male). All participants underwent neurocognitive tests for fluid intelligence, reaction time, numeric memory, symbol‐digit substitution, and trail making at baseline and follow‐up.

Compared with controls, those with ACHD tended to have greater socioeconomic deprivation (median Townsend Deprivation Index, −1.89 vs −2.14; p<0.001), decreased alcohol consumption (37.6 percent vs 30.8 percent reported “seldom” drinking; p<0.001), and lower blood pressure (BP; median systolic BP, 134 vs 137 mm Hg; p<0.001; median diastolic BP, 79 vs 82 mm Hg; p<0.001).

Individuals with ACHD performed significantly poorly on measures of visual attention and cognitive flexibility and processing speed. They spent 6.4 seconds longer on alpha‐numeric trail making (p=0.002) and 2.5 seconds longer on numeric trail making (p=0.034) compared with controls.

The ACHD group also had poorer performance on symbol‐digit substitution, a measure of processing speed, with 0.9 fewer correct substitutions (p=0.021).

Individuals with ACHD had substantially higher burden of cerebro‐ and cardiovascular disease, and this might have contributed to poor neurocognitive outcomes, as demonstrated by the attenuation in neurocognitive differences between the ACHD and control groups in an analysis that excluded individuals with a history of stroke and coronary artery disease.

Mengingat dampak neurokognisi pada ukuran kualitas hidup seperti kemampuan kerja, diperlukan lebih banyak penelitian yang mengevaluasi fungsi neurokognitif pada populasi ACHD untuk memfasilitasi perawatan klinis preventif yang lebih baik.