Early-onset oculomotor neuropathy ups dementia risk

Adults who develop ocular motor cranial neuropathy (OMCN), particularly at a younger age, are at greater risk of having dementia, reveals a study.

A total of 19,243 patients who had a diagnosis of OMCN between 2010 and 2017 and 96,215 matched control participants without OMCN were enrolled in this nationwide, population-based cohort study, which utilized authenticated data from the Korean National Health Insurance Service database.

The investigators obtained participant characteristics from the health checkup records of the National Health Screening Program. They then examined the relationship between OMCN and dementia risk using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis, adjusting for potential confounding factors.

Furthermore, the investigators calculated the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95 percent confidence intervals (CIs) for all-cause dementia (ACD), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and vascular dementia (VaD) development in patients with OMCN relative to those without.

Based on the analysis, patients with new-onset OMCN had higher metabolic comorbidities than those without OMCN. A newly diagnosed OMCN showed a significant association with an increased risk of ACD (HR, 1.203; 95 percent CI, 1.113‒1.300), AD (HR, 1.137; 95 percent CI, 1.041‒1.243), and VaD (HR, 1.583; 95 percent CI, 1.286‒1.948), independent of potential confounders.

Notably, the observed relationship between OMCN and ACD was stronger among younger patients (<50 vs ≥50 years: HR, 8.690 vs 1.192; p=0.0004; <65 vs ≥65 years: HR, 2.517 vs 1.099; p<0.0001).

“Our results demonstrated a robust relationship between OMCN and the risk of dementia, particularly in the younger population,” the investigators said.