Clinical efficacy and changes in regional cerebral perfusion after nicergoline treatment in vascular dementia: a retrospective study in South Korea

Background: Nicergoline is an ergoline derivative and vessel dilator that is used to treat cognitive deficits in cerebrovascular disease and various forms of dementia including vascular dementia (VaD).Although therapeutic effects of nicergoline have been established, little is known about its effects on cerebral perfusion in patients with VaD.We conducted this longitudinal study to evaluate the role of nicergoline in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and cognitive function of VaD patients using technetium-99m ethyl cysteinate dimer single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and neuropsychological tests.Methods: Eleven VaD patients who received nicergoline therapy and 11 VaD patients who did not receive nicergoline therapy underwent SPECT and clinical neuropsychological tests at baseline and 6-month follow up visits.Patients treated with nicergoline received 30 mg twice per day.Clinical and cognitive functioning was assessed using the mini-mental state examination, clinical dementia rating with sum of boxes, Montreal cognitive assessment and neuropsychiatric inventory.Results: Nicergoline treatment showed improvement in the cognitive function via results of neuropsychological tests and neuropsychiatric symptoms, which were not statistically significant.In regard with change in rCBF, there also was no statistical significance between 2 groups.Conclusions: Although there is no significant improvement in cognitive function, numerical improvements were shown in cognitive tests other than rCBF.Larger, longitudinal studies are needed to further clarify the therapeutic effects of nicergoline and determine the utility of nicergoline for treatment of VaD.