There is increasing evidence about inflammatory processes in the development of dementia. Therefore, inflammation has been believed to play a pivot role in cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and vascular dementia. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP) is a sensitive systemic marker of inflammation, and increased levels of hs-CRP are associated with inflammatory reactions. It is important to identify modifiable risk factors, which could be used in preventing or delaying the onset of dementia. Therefore, we studied to clarify a clinical role of hs-CRP in AD and VaD.

This study population consisted of a sample of 102 patients with dementia (54 patients of AD and 48 patients of VaD) and 91 controls. We have investigated hs-CRP levels and cognitive function of each group. Cognitive function was evaluated with Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), Global Deterioration Scale (GDS), Clinical Dementia Rating (CDR) with Sum of Box and Activities of Daily Living (ADL).

All subjects with dementia showed higher hs-CRP levels than subjects without dementia. But, there was no significant difference of hs-CRP levels between patients with AD and those with VaD. The odds ratio of patients with AD and VaD by hs-CRP is 2.250 (95% Cl 1.670-3.032) for Alzheimer's disease and 4.0 (95% Cl 2.451-6.529) for vascular dementia.

The result of our study suggests the presence of inflammatory activity is related with dementia, not only AD known to degenerative disease but also VaD associated with cerebrovascular disease. However, we could suggest that dementia with cerebrovascular lesions is more related with inflammatory activity than AD.