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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Frances Harrington, Dr Brian Saxby, Professor Ian McKeith, Professor Gary Ford
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Longitudinal studies suggest that hypertension in midlife is associated with cognitive impairment in later life. Cross-sectional studies are difficult to interpret because blood pressure can change with onset of dementia and the inclusion of subjects on treatment and with hypertensive end-organ damage can make analysis difficult. We examined cognitive performance in hypertensive and normotensive subjects without dementia or stroke ≥70 years of age. Cognitive performance was determined with the use of a computerized assessment battery in 107 untreated hypertensives (55 women, age 76±4 years, blood pressure, 164±9/89±7; range, 138 to 179/68 to 99 mm Hg) and 116 normotensives (51 female, age 76±4 years, 131±10/74±7; 108 to 149/60 to 89 mm Hg). Older subjects with hypertension were significantly slower in all tests (reaction time, milliseconds; simple, 346±100 versus 318±56, P<0.05; memory scanning, 867±243 versus 789±159, P<0.01; immediate word recognition, 947±261 versus 886±192, P<0.05; and delayed word recognition, 937±230 versus 856±184, P<0.05; picture recognition, 952±184 versus 894±137, P<0.01; spatial memory, 1390±439 versus 1258±394, P<0.01; excepting choice reaction time, 510±75 versus 498±72, P=0.08). Accuracy was also impaired in tests of number vigilance, 99.2±2.5% versus 99.9±0.9, P<0.01; delayed word recognition, 83.5±16 versus 87.9±9.8, P<0.01; and spatial memory 64±32 versus 79±20, P<0.001. Hypertension in older subjects is associated with impaired cognition in a broad range of areas in the absence of clinically evident target organ damage.
Author(s): McKeith IG; Saxby BK; Harrington F; Ford GA; Wesnes K
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Hypertension
Year: 2000
Volume: 36
Issue: 6
Pages: 1079-1082
Print publication date: 01/01/2000
ISSN (print): 0194-911X
ISSN (electronic): 1524-4563
Publisher: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
URL: http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/36/6/1079.short
PubMed id: 11116128
