Immediately post-stroke my executive function was not working that well, Today it is probably even better than pre-stroke. Although the people tested here were pre MI or stroke. That just means our stroke associations should be sponsoring a study on this for survivors.
http://dgnews.docguide.com/people-low-executive-function-test-scores-may-be-higher-risk-mi?
People with low scores on a test of executive function may be at
higher risk of a myocardial infarction (MI) or stroke, according to a
study published in the August 5, 2015, online issue of the journal
Neurology.
“These results show that heart and brain function are more closely
related than appearances would suggest,” said Behnam Sabayan, MD, Leiden
University Medical Center, Leiden, the Netherlands. “While these
results might not have immediate clinical translation, they emphasise
that assessment of cognitive function should be part of the evaluation
of future cardiovascular risk.”
The study involved 3,926 people with an average age of 75 years and
without a history of MIs or strokes. All of the people involved had
either a history of heart disease or an increased risk of heart disease
from high blood pressure, diabetes or smoking. The people were also free
of dementia.
Four tests were used to evaluate the participants’ high-level
thinking skills at the beginning of the study. The participants were
then placed in groups of “low,” “medium,” and “high” based on the
results. The participants were then followed for an average of 3 years
to see who developed an MI or stroke. During that time, there were 375
MIs and 155 strokes, which is a rate of 31 MIs per 1,000 person-years
and 12 strokes per 1,000 person-years.
People in the lowest group of executive function thinking skills were
85% more likely to have a MI than those in the highest group. A total
of 176 of the 1,309 people with low scores had MIs, compared with 93 of
the 1,308 people with high scores, which translates to a rate of 44 MIs
per 1,000 person-years for people with low scores compared with 22 MIs
per 1,000 person-years for people with high scores.
For strokes, people with low scores had a 51% higher risk of stroke.
There were 69 strokes among those with those with low scores, compared
with 48 strokes among those with high scores.
“Performance on tests of thinking and memory are a measure of brain
health,” said Dr. Sabayan. “Lower scores on thinking tests indicate
worse brain functioning. Worse brain functioning in particular in
executive function could reflect disease of the brain vascular supply,
which in turn would predict, as it did, a higher likelihood of stroke.
And, since blood vessel disease in the brain is closely related to blood
vessel disease in the heart, that’s why low test scores also predicted a
greater risk of heart attacks. We acknowledge that even though the
results were statistically significant, the risks were small.”
SOURCE: American Academy of Neurology
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