According to a new study, people with congestive heart failure typically lose gray matter in some brain regions that are essential for cognitive functions. These people usually have bad long term memory & psychomotor speed and this is according to Dr. Osvaldo Almeida of the University of Western Australia. There is one clinical allegation that says heart failure patients typically find it hard to follow complicated self-care advice. The biological trails that link congestive heart failure with loss of brain tissue & having impaired memory is yet unclear, according to researchers the need is still there to continue with the study. It is not yet clear though if these observations get worse in time.

The result of heart failure

Congestive heart failure or simply heart failure is a very common result of heart disease and it has been shown to be linked with impairment of the general mental ability, memory and attention according to the researchers.  But this is not yet clear if those shortages are results of the heart failure or if they are comorbid conditions like ischemic heart ailment or cerebrovascular disease.  Its best to clear up your mind, according to Almeida, who made the cross sectional research of the one hundred fifty five volunteers that includes thirty five people with systolic heart failure, fifty six with history of ischemic heart ailment, but not heart failure and sixty four healthy individuals. Those who have participated are around forty five years of age and didn’t have overt cognitive impairment at all. All of which are only eleven with heart failure cases and they are the only ones who showed signs of ischemic heart disease with systolic heart failure.

According to researchers

The researchers made the measurement about the overall cognitive performance, the primary result of the study with the use of Cambridge cognitive exam of the Elderly revised. They have measured as well things like memory, psychomotor speed and attention as well. They use of MRI to compare the gray matter volumes with the patients.  The researchers showed that those who have participated with the test with heart failure never went through worse performance than neither healthy controls nor people with ischemic heart ailments on the prime cognitive measure. However, patients with heart failure had lower scores than the healthy individuals regarding fast recall, long delay call and digit coding.

It is essential to know that people with ischemic heart disease and those with heart failure are both linked with the loss of cells in the brain parts that are essential for modulating emotions and other mental activities as well. The findings that they have made might be underestimated, since the result is bias among healthy individuals and those with existing condition.  In the study that they have made, they only included in the list those with systolic heart failure, so it is not yet clear if the end results will be applicable to those with non-systolic dysfunction.