Comparative analysis of the characteristics of patients with coronary heart disease of middle and older age with different dynamics of cognitive functioning during rehabilitation after coronary bypass surgery

For an in-depth study of the main clinical, psychosocial and emotional-personal characteristics of patients with coronary heart disease with different dynamics (improvement and deterioration) of cognitive functioning after coronary bypass surgery, a study was conducted on the basis of the Federal State Medical Research Center named after V. A. Almazova (St. Petersburg). The study involved 51 patients: 24 elderly (60–74 years old) and 27 middleaged patients (45–59 years old). The study was carried out in two stages: the 1st stage — immediately before coronary artery bypass grafting (1–2 days before the operation), the 2nd stage — 7–10 days after the operation. We used a clinical psychology interview and following psycho diagnostic methods: Integrative anxiety test (IАT), Toronto alexithymic scale (TAS), Trail Making Test (TMT), Subtests of “Similarities” and “The Block Design Tests (Kohs)” from the Veksler Scale for the Study of the Intelligence of Adults (WAIS), “10 words”; “Remembering stories”, “Simple analogies”, Test of visual retention A. Benton, Interference Stroop Task. According to the data obtained, elderly patients with cognitive impairment differ: not following a diet before hospitalization; lack of physical activity before hospitalization; the presence in the history of obesity of one degree or another; a large number of affected arteries (including trunks); more burdened by heredity in CVD in the male line. At the same time, middle-aged patients with a deterioration in the dynamics of cognitive functioning are distinguished by a large number of cigarettes smoked per day; damage to the left coronary artery, the presence in the history of chronic bronchitis; pronounced phobic component of personal anxiety.