Perioperative medicine & outcomes
Genetic Contributors to Postoperative Delirium and Their Implications for Dementia Outcomes
Authors' conclusion
This study demonstrates APOE as a genetic risk locus for International Classification of Diseases-coded POD in the noncardiac surgery setting and confirms an association between POD and subsequent dementia.
Study context
- Population
- UK Biobank surgical subjects; Postoperative delirium (POD) defined by ICD-10 delirium codes within the first 7 postoperative days
- Participants
- 230,179 vs 21,254
- Exposure
- POD vs no POD; genome-wide genetic variants for POD
- Noncardiacn = 230,179
- Cardiacn = 21,254
- Outcome
- Genetic contributors to POD (genome-wide significant loci) and association of POD with subsequent dementia
- Follow-up
- POD within first 7 postoperative days
Methodological detailsUK Biobank, genome-wide association studies, prespecified subgroups, functional annotation, gene prioritization and drug-target analyses, Cox models
- UK Biobank
- Genome-wide association studies
- Prespecified subgroups
- Functional annotation, gene prioritization and drug-target analyses
- Cox models
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Genome-wide significant loci for POD
- Noncardiac: one genome-wide significant locus at the APOE region, lead variant rs429358
- P = 5.00 × 10 −28
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
All-cause dementia after POD
| HR (95% CI) | ||
|---|---|---|
| POD (noncardiac surgery)Cox models | 6.45 (5.45–7.63) | |
| POD (cardiac surgery)Cox models | 2.95 (1.71–5.08) | |
| 0.10.31310Hazard ratio (log scale) |
Gene prioritization and drug-target analyses (noncardiac)
- Multiple genes within the APOE locus highlighted; exploratory analyses suggested potential subgroup-specific drug-target enrichment
Original publication
Genetic Contributors to Postoperative Delirium and Their Implications for Dementia Outcomes. Anesthesiology. Published 4 June 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →