(Internal Medicine News) — Uncontrolled hypertension at midlife may be related to continuous cortical thinning, a condition which has been shown to be associated with dementia in old age.
“We suggest that midlife hypertension is associated with cortical thinning in areas related to blood pressure regulation, and dementia,” Miika Vuorinen and his colleagues wrote in a poster presented March 10 at the International conference on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease.
“To our knowledge, this is the first study focusing on the effects of midlife hypertension on these multiple brain regions in later life,” wrote Mr. Vuorinen, a doctoral student at the University of Finland, Kuopio.
The study yielded some interesting observations that await further clarification in other populations before additional interpretations can be made, said Dr. Richard J. Caselli, who was not involved in the study.
“The general relationship of cerebrovascular risk factors with Alzheimer’s disease [AD] is an area of great interest, but also some controversy, as not all studies agree with each other. In the current case, for example, some factors like hypercholesterolemia and obesity, that others have found to correlate with AD risk did not correlate with cortical thinning,” said Dr. Caselli, professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Cardiovascular Risk Factors, Aging, and Incidence of Dementia study (CAIDE) comprises 1,449 residents of eastern Finland who were first evaluated at midlife, in 1972, 1977, 1982, or 1987. Now, with up to 30 years of follow-up, researchers are evaluating how midlife blood pressure, body mass index, cholesterol levels, smoking, and physical activity might relate to late-life brain health.
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