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| |  Hypertension Linked to Dementia in Older Women BRONX, NY -- January 12, 2010 -- Older women with hypertension are at increased risk for developing brain lesions that cause dementia later in life, according to data from the Women’s Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) published online in the Journal of Clinical Hypertension. The research was conducted as part of the Women’ Health Initiative (WHI), the multicentre, longitudinal study looking at health risks among postmenopausal women. WHIMS, which involves a subgroup of the women enrolled in WHI, looks at the influence of hormone therapy on thinking and memory. All the women in WHIMS were aged 65 years or older. Upon enrolling in the trial and annually during their participation in it, the women had their blood pressure measured and underwent tests to measure their cognitive ability. Some of the WHIMS participants (1,403) also underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 14 US academic centres in 2005 and 2006. All of these women were free of dementia when they enrolled. Lewis H. Kuller, MD, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Sylvia Wassertheil-Smoller, PhD, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, and colleagues examined the data on these women. The MRI studies revealed that women who, on entry to the WHIMS trial, had elevated blood pressure (defined as systolic blood pressure >=140 mmHg, or diastolic blood pressure >= 90 mmHg, or being on antihypertensive drug therapy), had significantly higher amounts of white matter lesions (WMLs) when they underwent MRIs 8 years later. “Based on our findings, we would encourage women to maintain their blood pressure at normal levels, which may reduce their risk of dementia,” said Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller. The small blood vessels in the brain are especially susceptible to damage from even moderately elevated blood pressure -- resulting in damage to the white matter served by those vessels. “We don’t know whether hypertension treatment will prevent WMLs from developing, or how much blood pressure should be lowered so that these brain lesions won’t occur,” said Dr. Wassertheil-Smoller. “We do have suggestive evidence that the progression of WMLs can be slowed by anti-hypertensive therapy.” “Nonetheless,” she added, “it would be prudent for women to keep their blood pressure low, and the earlier in life they start doing so, the better. At present, keeping blood pressure at normal levels is probably the most effective way we know of to prevent dementia from occurring.”
SOURCE: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
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