Ideal Blood Pressure may remodel brain clearance pathways to brain health and Dementia, a study

INA - SOURCES 

Among people who received more intensive treatment for high blood pressure, evaluations of MRI scans indicated a positive change in brain structures involved in its ability to clear toxins and other byproducts, according to preliminary research to be presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2023.

The study is the first to examine whether intensive blood pressure treatment may slow, or reverse structural changes related to the volume of the brain’s perivascular spaces, areas of the brain around the blood vessels that are involved in the clearance of toxins and other byproducts. 

These areas tend to enlarge as people get older or have more cardiovascular risk factors.

The researchers analyzed brain MRI scans for 658 participants (average age of 67 years, 60% women) of the SPRINT-MIND MRI substudy. The trial began in 2010, and the last MRI scan was completed in July 2016. All participants had high blood pressure but none had previously been diagnosed with diabetes (Type 1 or 2), dementia or stroke.

After an average 3.9-year follow-up period, 243 people in the intensive treatment group (systolic blood pressure goal of 120 mm Hg) and 199 people in the standard treatment arm (systolic blood pressure goal of 140 mm Hg) had pre– and post–MRI scans that were analyzed for the percentage of brain tissue taken up by perivascular spaces.