Blood Pressure and Dementia

Alzheimer disease and related dementias affect nearly 10% of US adults older than 65 years. With an aging population, the prevalence of dementia is likely to increase, adding to the enormous burden on affected patients, their caregivers, and the health care system. Besides Alzheimer pathology (eg, amyloid and tau protein deposition) in the brain, there is increasing evidence of the contributions of vascular pathology (eg, stroke, subclinical infarct, and ischemic white matter changes) on dementia occurrence. Furthermore, these 2 common pathologies can coexist in individual patients, with evidence that cerebrovascular insults might even trigger Alzheimer disease pathology.
Source: JAMA - Category: General Medicine Source Type: research