Increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus patients compared to a population-based cohort from the HUNT3 survey.

Background: Idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) is one of few types of dementia that can be treated with shunt surgery and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) diversion. It is frequently present with cerebral vasculopathy; however, how the prevalence of cardiovascular disease compares between iNPH patients and the general population has not yet been established. Therefore, a case-control study was performed to examine whether the prevalence of cardiovascular disease (arterial hypertension, angina pectoris, cardiac infarction, and diabetes) was different in 440 iNPH patients, when compared to 43,387 participants of the Nord-Trøndelag Health 3 Survey (The HUNT3 Survey), which was considered as the general control population.

Findings: In iNPH patients aged 35-70 years, we found increased prevalence for arterial hypertension (males), angina pectoris (females and males), and cardiac infarction (males), as compared with the HUNT3 control group with significant odds ratio estimates. In addition, the prevalence of diabetes was increased in both age groups 35-70 years (males) and 70-90 years (females and males).

Conclusions: The data show significantly increased prevalence of cardiovascular disease iNPH patients, which provide evidence that cardiovascular disease is involved as an exposure in the development of iNPH.