RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cardiovascular risk factors for micro- and macro-structural brain changes in healthy ageing
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 264770
DO 10.1101/264770
A1 Delia Fuhrmann
A1 David Nesbitt
A1 Meredith Shafto
A1 James B. Rowe
A1 Darren Price
A1 Andrew Gadie
A1 Cam-CAN
A1 Rogier A. Kievit
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/02/14/264770.abstract
AB Cardiovascular health declines with age, increasing the risk of hypertension and elevated heart rate in middle- and old-age. Here, we used multivariate Structural Equation Modelling to investigate the effects of cardiovascular health (diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure and heart rate) on white matter macrostructure (lesion volume and number), and microstructure (as measured by Diffusion Weighted Imaging) in the cross-sectional, population-based Cam-CAN cohort (N = 667, aged 18 to 88). We found that cardiovascular health and age made approximately similar contributions to white matter health and explained up to 56% of variance. Lower diastolic blood pressure, higher systolic blood pressure and higher heart rate were each strongly, and independently, associated with white matter abnormalities on all indices. Body mass and exercise were associated with white matter health, both directly and indirectly via cardiovascular health. These results highlight the importance of cardiovascular risk factors for white matter health across the adult lifespan and suggest that systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure and heart rate affect white matter via separate mechanisms.