Detecting cognitive impairment in individuals at risk for cardiovascular disease: the "Clock-in-the-Box" screening test.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance on the Clock-in-the-Box (CIB), a screening measure for cognitive function, relative to neuropsychological testing in an older population with cardiovascular risk.

Methods: A prospective cohort of older patients (>50 years) with cardiovascular risk was recruited to perform the CIB and complete a brief neuropsychological battery consisting of Trailmaking tests, the Hopkins Verbal Learning Test (HVLT), and fluency tasks. Performance on the CIB was scored according to standard criteria (range 0-8, 0-worst).

Variation in blood pressure is associated with white matter microstructure but not cognition in African Americans.

Although hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and is highly prevalent in African Americans, little is known about how blood pressure (BP) affects brain-behavior relationships in this population. In predominantly Caucasian populations, high BP is associated with alterations in frontal-subcortical white matter and in executive functioning aspects of cognition. We investigated associations among BP, brain structure, and neuropsychological functioning in 52 middle-older-age African Americans without diagnosed history of CVD.