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The following is a summary of “Arterial stiffness measured by pulse wave velocity correlated with cognitive decline in hypertensive individuals: a systematic review,” published in the October 2024 issue of Neurology by Aimagambetova et al.     

Arterial stiffness is a degenerative change in the arterial wall that affects normal aging. Hypertension is a major risk factor for cerebrovascular impairment, and pulse wave velocity (PWV) is the gold standard for measuring arterial stiffness.   

Researchers conducted a retrospective study exploring the clinical importance of arterial stiffness, measured by PWV, in older adults for cognitive function with hypertension.  

They adhered to the PRISMA 2020 guidelines and Cochrane protocol (registered in NIHR PROSPERO) to search databases, including PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CINAHL, and Cochrane, for relevant publications up to December 2022. They filtered studies by age and type, including only those with a sample size of at least 500 individuals (n=434) for full-text review.  

The results showed that 28 studies primarily used PWV to measure arterial stiffness. Among these, 24 used carotid-femoral PWV, 2 used brachial-ankle PWV, and 1 used aortic PWV, with 11 studies comparing different measures. Strong associations were found between increased BP and PWV with brain damage and cognitive decline. However, 1 study did not find an interaction with hypertension, and another found that PWV, but not BP, was associated with cognitive decline. A few studies showed that the association between stiffness and cognitive outcomes was not significant after adjusting for BP, while several authors suggested that antihypertensive therapy could mitigate cognitive decline induced by stiff vasculature and hypertension.  

They concluded that arterial hypertension was significantly linked to arterial stiffness, as measured by PWV, in older individuals for cognitive health, emphasizing the importance of BP control and early screening for stiffness to prevent cerebrovascular disease.  

Source: bmcneurol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12883-024-03905-8