MRI shows effects of high blood pressure on the brain

High blood pressure has a negative effect on the brain's white matter -- and not just in older adults but in younger ones as well, researchers have reported. A study conducted by a team led by Junyeon Won, PhD, of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas found that diffusion-weighted MRI brain white matter metrics showed a connection between hypertension and white matter abnormalities. Their results were published March 15 in Hypertension. "[We found that] high blood pressure and high hypertension stage were associated with [diffusion-weighted MRI white matter brain characteristics]," the group wrote. High blood pressure in middle-aged and older adults has been linked with microstructural abnormalities in brain white matter. But there's less research about whether this connection also exists in healthy young adults, the group explained. To address this knowledge gap, Won's team conducted a study that included data from 1,015 young adults between the ages of 22 and 37 taken from the Human Connectome Project. The team measured participants' brachial systolic and diastolic blood pressure. All participants underwent diffusion-weighted MRI and the investigators assessed any associations between blood pressure and hypertension stage with diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) brain white matter metrics after adjusting for age, sex, education, body mass index, smoking status, and history of alcohol consumption. The group found that participants with higher blood pressure and hyperte...
Source: AuntMinnie.com Headlines - Category: Radiology Authors: Tags: Clinical News Subspecialties MRI Neuroradiology Source Type: news