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Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction is Correlated with Urine Formaldehyde in Elderly Noncardiac Surgical Patients

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Abstract

Post-operative cognitive dysfunction (POCD), especially in elderly patients, has been reported in many studies. Although increasing age, duration of anesthesia, postoperative infections, and respiratory complications were regarded as the risk factors for POCD, no extracerebral diagnostic biomarkers have been identified as indicators of POCD. Ninety-five patients, ages 65–80 years, scheduled for major orthopedic or abdominal surgery were enrolled. Twenty-two patients aged between 20 and 40 years undergoing the same procedures served as controls. Subjects received neuropsychological tests one-day prior and one week post procedure. To determine the presence of POCD, the criteria were used as described in most previous studies. Morning urine samples were obtained one day before surgery and on day 1, day 2 and day 7 post operatively. Urine formaldehyde was determined with high-performance liquid chromatography. The urine formaldehyde level of all patients with and without POCD increased on the first 2 days after surgery. But the formaldehyde concentration (on day 7) in patients with POCD was significantly higher than that in patients without POCD (p < 0.01). In the young control group, no patient was diagnosed with POCD. Although the changes in urine formaldehyde of young patients during perioperative period were similar to those in elderly patients without POCD, the formaldehyde concentrations measured at four time points were all significantly lower than those in elderly patients (p < 0.05). Levels of urine formaldehyde were elevated in the perioperative period, with the highest levels at day 7 in patients with POCD. This suggests that the increase on day 7 may provide a new physiologic marker along with neuropsychological assessments to assist in the diagnosis of POCD.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by grants from the 973-Project (2012CB911004; 2010CB912303), and the Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 30970695 and CAS-KSCX2-YW-R-119, KSCX2-YW-R-256). We thank Dr. **g Lu and Mr. Yingge He for providing their epidemiological investigation data to support this work and Dr. Joy Fleming for her comments on the manuscript. Dr. Joy Fleming, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g 100101, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Anesthesiology, Chaoyang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Bei**g, 100020, China

    Jiawan Wang & Yun Yue

  2. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Science, Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100101, China

    Tao Su, Ying Liu & Rongqiao He

  3. Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100101, China

    Rongqiao He

  4. Graduate University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Bei**g, 100049, China

    Tao Su

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  1. Jiawan Wang
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  2. Tao Su
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  3. Ying Liu
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Correspondence to Yun Yue or Rongqiao He.

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Yun Yue and Rongqiao He share equal senior/corresponding authorship.

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Wang, J., Su, T., Liu, Y. et al. Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction is Correlated with Urine Formaldehyde in Elderly Noncardiac Surgical Patients. Neurochem Res 37, 2125–2134 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-012-0834-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11064-012-0834-x

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