Table 2.

Cognitive performance and brain MRI findings in the sample (n = 819) by the absence or presence of metabolic syndrome

Variable	No metabolic syndrome	Metabolic syndrome	P
n	587	232
Neuropsychological test results
Mini Mental State Examination	27.5 ± 1.5 (22–30)	27.4 ± 1.5 (22–30)	0.58*
Memory	0.06 ± 1.0 (−1.91 to 4.38)	−0.17 ± 0.9 (−1.98 to 3.32)	<0.001*
Psychomotor skills	0.06 ± 0.8 (−3.00 to 2.56)	0.01 ± 0.9 (−2.17 to 2.93)	0.46*
Executive functions	0.49 ± 3.0 (−18.23 to 5.44)	−0.32 ± 3.1 (−16.04 to 5.21)	<0.001*
Brain MRI findings
WML volume in cm3	0.9 (0.2–3.1)	0.9 (0.2–2.4)	0.89†
Lacunes	32 (5.4)	15 (6.4)	0.56‡
Silent infarcts	16 (2.7)	10 (4.3)	0.24‡
Normalized brain percentage	0.78 ± 0.03 (0.67–0.87)	0.78 ± 0.04 (0.68–0.86)	0.38*

Data are means ± SD (range), n (%), or median (interquartile range).

*ANOVA test.

†Mann-Whitney U test.

‡χ² test.