Isabelle van der Velpen

Erasmus MC | Erasmus MC · Department of Epidemiology

Purpose Psychosocial health problems, such as social isolation, loneliness, depression and anxiety, have gained attention during the COVID-19 pandemic and are commonly co-occurring. We investigated the network of psychosocial health constructs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods This study included 4553 participants (mean age: 68.6 ± 11.2 years,...

Background Cerebrovascular disease is regarded as a potential cause of late-life depression. Yet, evidence for associations of neuroimaging markers of vascular brain disease with depressive symptoms is inconclusive. We examined the associations of neuroimaging markers and depressive symptoms in a large population-based study of middle-aged and elde...

Objective To investigate the association of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and Preserved Ratio Impaired Spirometry (PRISm) with cognitive performance and presence of vascular brain lesions (VBL). Methods We determined both cross-sectional and longitudinal association of lung function impairment with cognition, as well as cross-sectio...

Objectives The coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and accompanying lockdown restrictions impacted social life significantly. We studied associations of sociodemographic factors, mental and social health markers, and brain structure with social health trajectories during the COVID-19 pandemic. Design Prospective longitudinal population-ba...

Background Social health markers have been linked to the development of dementia. We hypothesize that social health affects brain structure and consequently influences cognitive function. We aim to elucidate the cross-sectional and longitudinal associations between social health markers and structural brain changes in older adults in the general po...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a complex, multicausal disorder involving several spatiotemporal scales and scientific domains. While many studies focus on specific parts of this system, the complexity of AD is rarely studied as a whole. In this work, we apply systems thinking to map out known causal mechanisms and risk factors ranging from intracellul...

Animal studies suggest the involvement of natriuretic peptides (NP) in several brain functions that are known to be disturbed during Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, it remains unclear whether such findings extend to humans. In this study, we aimed to: (1) map the gene expression and localization of NP and their receptors (NPR) in human post-mort...

It is well established that patients with heart failure are at a greater risk for dementia. Recent evidence suggests that the heart-brain link goes beyond advanced heart failure and even sub-optimal cardiac function is associated with brain structural and functional changes leading to cognitive impairment. In this review, we will address several pa...

Introduction: Cardiac function is a key player in maintaining energy homeostasis in the brain. Heart failure is closely related to higher risk of neurocognitive disorders. Recent evidence shows that this relationship might not be limited to patients with advanced heart failure, and even suboptimal cardiac functioning is associated with accelerated...