Higher blood pressure variability (BPV) predisposes to cognitive decline. To investigate underlying mechanisms, we measured 24-h ambulatory BPV, nocturnal dipping and orthostatic hypotension in 518 participants with vascular cognitive impairment, carotid occlusive disease, heart failure, or reference participants. We determined cross-sectional associations between BPV indices and plasma biomarkers of neuronal injury (neurofilament light chain) and Alzheimer's disease (phosphorylated-tau-181 and Aβ42/Aβ40).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is associated with an increased risk of dementia, potentially attributable to cerebral hypoperfusion. We investigated which patterns and characteristics of OH are related to cognition or to potentially underlying structural brain injury in hemodynamically impaired patients and healthy reference participants.
Methods: Participants with carotid occlusive disease or heart failure, and reference participants from the Heart-Brain Connection Study underwent OH measurements, neuropsychological assessment and brain MRI.
Background: Cardiovascular disease is an important contributor to cognitive impairment. This likely involves prototypical vascular disease mechanisms like ischemia, but cardiovascular disease might also impact the brain by accelerating cerebral amyloid-β accumulation. We aimed to determine whether there is an association between heart disease or carotid occlusive disease (COD) and cerebral amyloid-β burden.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBlood pressure variability (BPV) is related to cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMH), but longitudinal studies assessing WMH progression are scarce. Patients with cardiovascular disease and control participants of the Heart-Brain Connection Study underwent 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring and repeated brain MRI at baseline and after 2 years. Using linear regression, we determined whether different measures of BPV (standard deviation, coefficient of variation, average real variability (ARV), variability independent of the mean) and nocturnal dipping were associated with WMH and whether this association was mediated or moderated by baseline cerebral perfusion.
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