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Review
. 2021 Oct;20(10):854-867.
doi: 10.1016/S1474-4422(21)00248-9.

Heart health meets cognitive health: evidence on the role of blood pressure

Priya Palta  1 , Marilyn S Albert  2 , Rebecca F Gottesman  3
Affiliations
Review

Heart health meets cognitive health: evidence on the role of blood pressure

Priya Palta et al. Lancet Neurol. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

The enormous societal and financial burden of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias requires the identification of risk factors and pathways to reduce dementia risk. Blood pressure (BP) management and control is one promising area, in which data have been inconclusive. Accumulating evidence over the past 5 years shows the effectiveness of BP management interventions among older individuals at risk, most notably from the SPRINT-MIND trial. These findings have been coupled with longitudinal observational data. However, to date, the results do not concur on the optimal timing and target of BP lowering, and further study in diverse populations is needed. Given the long preclinical phase of dementia and data supporting the importance of BP control earlier in the lifecourse, long-term interventional and observational studies in ethnically and racially diverse populations, with novel imaging and blood-based biomarkers of neurodegeneration and vascular cognitive impairment to understand the pathophysiology, are needed to advance the field.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests RFG reports being an Associate Editor for the journal Neurology of the American Academy of Neurology. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Proposed mechanisms linking blood pressure and hypertension to cognitive decline and dementia.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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