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The association of blood pressure variability with white matter integrity and cognitive impairment in cerebral amyloid angiopathy
Author(s) -
Sveikata Lukas,
Zotin Maria Clara Za,
Schoemaker Dorothee,
Perosa Valentina,
Etherton Mark,
Ma Yuan,
Charidimou Andreas,
Greenberg Steven M.,
Viswanathan Anand
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
alzheimer's and dementia
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.713
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1552-5279
pISSN - 1552-5260
DOI - 10.1002/alz.056313
Subject(s) - medicine , cerebral amyloid angiopathy , blood pressure , cardiology , white matter , diffusion mri , pittsburgh compound b , cognitive decline , dementia , disease , magnetic resonance imaging , radiology
Background Emerging evidence suggests that blood pressure variability (BPV) may contribute to small vessel disease (SVD) progression and cognitive impairment beyond the deleterious effects of elevated blood pressure, but the mechanisms remain largely unknown. This study investigates if BPV is associated with white matter (WM) microstructural integrity and the slope of cognitive decline in elderly individuals with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), a well characterized type of SVD. Method We recruited 94 non‐demented individuals (73.3 ± 7.0 y, 40 F, MMSE 27.7 ± 1.5) from a memory‐clinic cohort with and without possible/probable CAA with available neuropsychological evaluation and 3.0 T research MRI. Visit‐to‐visit BPV was assessed using the coefficient of variation derived from the serial outpatient BP measures during a 5‐year interval. A novel diffusion tensor imaging marker – peak width of skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD) – was used to evaluate the WM integrity. Using linear regression models, we evaluated the association of PSMD with BPV, adjusted for standard cardiovascular risk factors. Result We found a significant association between loss of WM integrity and high systolic BPV (β = 0.37, P < 0.001), but not mean BP. The association remained significant after adjusting for age, antihypertensive medication usage, diabetes, smoking, and body mass index. Furthermore, the association of BPV with WM integrity was stronger when CAA was present ( P for interaction = 0.018). Higher BPV at baseline was associated with worse executive function in CAA patients at 2‐year follow‐up (β = ‐0.53, P = 0.003), adjusted for baseline function. Conclusion Our findings show that visit‐to‐visit BP fluctuations are associated with loss of WM microstructural integrity and cognitive decline. The association between BP variability and WM integrity might in part be driven by CAA pathology. Further studies are warranted to disentangle the relationship between BP fluctuations, microvascular injury, and cognitive impairment in older adults.