Abstract: Objective  To investigate the correlation of the cerebral blood flow velocity with the severity of depression and cognitive function of patients with depression.
Methods  A total of 68 patients with depression were selected as the observation group and 80 healthy people who underwent physical examination were enrolled as the control group. Transcranial Doppler(TCD) was used to analyze the cerebral artery blood flow velocity of basilar artery(BA), left and right cerebral vertebral artery(VA), left and right anterior cerebral artery(ACA), left and right middle cerebral artery(MCA), and left and right posterior cerebral artery(PCA).  The Hamilton depression scale(HAMD) was used to assess the severity of depression in the patients. The cognitive function of the two groups was assessed by the cancellation test(CT) and the Wisconsin cardsorting test(WCST). Pearson correlation analysis was used to analyze the correlation of cerebral blood flow velocity with depression severity and cognitive function of patients with depression.
Results  The HAMD score of the observation group was significantly higher than that of the control group, with significant differences(P＜0.05). The net scores and total net scores of CT evaluations of patients in the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group. The total number of WCST score responses, the number of error responses, the number of persistent errors, and the completion of the first classification response were significantly higher than those of the control group, suggesting significant difference between the groups( P＜0.05). The blood flow velocities of the BA, left and right MCA, and left and right ACA of the observation group were significantly lower than those of the control group, and the difference between the groups was statistically significant(P＜0.05). There was no significant difference in the blood flow velocities of the VA and left and right PCA(P＞0.05). According to the Pearman correlation analysis results, the blood flow velocity of BA and right MCA was significantly positively correlated with the total net score of CT, while the blood flow velocity of left ACA and right ACA was significantly negatively correlated with the total CT score. The blood flow velocity of BA, left ACA, and right ACA was significantly negatively correlated with the total number of WCST responses, the blood flow velocity of left ACA and right ACA was negatively correlated with the number of persistent errors, and that of right ACA was negatively correlated with the number of the completion of the first classification response(P＜0.05).
Conclusion  The cerebral artery blood flow velocity of depression patients was lower than that of healthy groups, and their attention and executive function were also significantly reduced, which, however, were not significantly correlated with the severity of depression. The influencing factors of the changes in cerebral blood flow velocity can be explored from the perspective of the degree of cognitive impairment of depression patients.

Key words: depressive disorder, blood flow velocity, cognition