Blood Pressure Variability Linked to Dementia

A prospective cohort study of a general Japanese population demonstrated a significant independent association between increased day-to-day blood pressure variability (BPV) measured with home blood pressure monitoring and risk of dementia. The study included 1674 community-dwelling Japanese elderly without dementia, ≥60 years of age, and followed up for 5 years (2007–2012). Day-to-day BPV, calculated as coefficients of variation (CoV) of home blood pressure, were categorized into quartiles. During the follow-up, 194 subjects developed all-cause dementia; of these, 47 vascular dementia (VaD) and 134 had Alzheimer disease (AD). The age- and sex-adjusted incidences of all-cause dementia, VaD, and AD increased significantly with increasing CoV levels of home systolic blood pressure (SBP). Similar associations were observed for CoV levels of home diastolic blood pressure. Home SBP levels were significantly associated with the risk of VaD. BPV has been recognized as an independent risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Source: http://circ.ahajournals.org/