Hoptman Matthew J, Gunning-Dixon Faith M, Murphy Christopher F, Ardekani Babak A, Hrabe Jan, Lim Kelvin O, Etwaroo Glenda R, Kanellopoulos Dora, Alexopoulos George S
Division of Clinical Research, Nathan Kline Institute, United States.
J Affect Disord. 2009 May;115(1-2):171-6. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2008.07.024. Epub 2008 Sep 20.
Cerebrovascular disease may increase vulnerability to geriatric depression, a syndrome often accompanied by frontal-subcortical lesions. High blood pressure is a risk factor for cerebrovascular disease and white matter changes. This study examined whether and in which brain regions blood pressure is associated with compromised white matter integrity in elderly depressed patients.
We studied the association between blood pressure and white matter integrity assessed by diffusion tensor imaging (fractional anisotropy, FA) in 41 older patients with major depression. Correlations between FA and blood pressure, after controlling for age, were examined with a voxelwise analysis.
Significant associations between FA and blood pressure were detected throughout the anterior cingulate and in multiple frontostriatal and frontotemporal regions.
This study did not employ a healthy control group. Moreover, the relatively small sample size precluded a comparison of patients with and without hypertension.
Compromised frontal-striatal white matter integrity may be the anatomical background through which blood pressure confers vulnerability to depression.
脑血管疾病可能会增加患老年抑郁症的易感性，老年抑郁症是一种常伴有额叶 - 皮质下病变的综合征。高血压是脑血管疾病和白质变化的一个危险因素。本研究探讨了老年抑郁症患者的血压是否以及在哪些脑区与白质完整性受损相关。
我们研究了41例重度抑郁症老年患者的血压与通过扩散张量成像评估的白质完整性（分数各向异性，FA）之间的关联。在控制年龄后，通过体素分析检查FA与血压之间的相关性。
在前扣带回以及多个额纹状体和额颞区域均检测到FA与血压之间存在显著关联。
本研究未采用健康对照组。此外，样本量相对较小，无法对有高血压和无高血压的患者进行比较。
额叶 - 纹状体白质完整性受损可能是血压使患者易患抑郁症的解剖学基础。
