Did you know that a heart attack also affects the ability to think? A new study has indicated that the brain of people who have suffered a heart attack works less than before in the coming days or months.
Researchers say that a person who has had a heart attack, in the future, there is a need to pay attention to him and monitor his brain and cognitive activities.
Based in Poland J. Dominika Kasprzaki, a cardiologist at Strauss Hospital and lead author of the research, said: “We found a very high prevalence of previously unknown cognitive impairment among patients hospitalized due to myocardial infarction.
He further said that this mental weakness or incapacity can be both permanent or temporary. In some patients, this mental weakness is seen several months after the heart attack.
In this study, the study participants assessed the mental functioning of 220 patients who were hospitalized in Poland after a heart attack.
These patients were subjected to two cognitive tests a few days after the heart attack, and the tests were repeated six months later.
Two important checks:
There were two tests – Mini-Mental State Examination and Clock Drawing Test. These tests assess a person’s ability to think, remember and perform basic tasks. These tests are usually used to identify signs of dementia.
In the tests, it was found that in about 50 percent of the patients in both the tests, their mental functioning was working normally, while the remaining half of the patients had some mental impairment.
Symptoms seen in the beginning in 27-33 percent:
About 35-40 percent of the patients had brain impairment in the initial days after the heart attack, while 27-33 percent of the patients had brain impairment six months after the heart attack.