Midlife Blood Pressure and Brain Abnormalities Decades Later

In cognitively normal adults, hypertension in midlife was associated with later-life white-matter lesions of presumed ischemic origin.

Hypertension is a powerful risk factor for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. The effects of blood pressure (BP) values and trajectories in midlife on subsequent brain morphologic changes are less clear, as is the effect of midlife hypertension on later cognitive decline.

In this substudy of a long-running project from the United Kingdom, investigators evaluated volunteers born in 1946 at ages 36, 43, 53, 60 to 64, and 69 years. Between ages 69 and 71, participants free of dementia underwent brain MRI to assess white-matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV) and whole-brain and hippocampal volumes. Participants also underwent amyloid PET scanning and cognitive testing.

Of 465 participants (mean age, 71; 51% men) who completed imaging and cognitive te…

Reviewing Author

Seemant Chaturvedi, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardBayer Pharmaceuticals; Novartis

Grant/Research SupportNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Editorial BoardsNeurology; Stroke

Seemant Chaturvedi, MD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardBayer Pharmaceuticals; Novartis

Grant/Research SupportNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke

Editorial BoardsNeurology; Stroke

Midlife Blood Pressure and Brain Abnormalities Decades Later

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Reviewing Author