Wåhlin Anders, Ambarki Khalid, Birgander Richard, Malm Jan, Eklund Anders
Department of Radiation Sciences, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Neurobiol Aging. 2014 Feb;35(2):365-72. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2013.08.026. Epub 2013 Sep 27.
Excessive intracranial pulsatility is thought to damage the cerebral microcirculation, causing cognitive decline in elderly individuals. We investigated relationships between brain structure and measures related to intracranial pulsatility among healthy elderly. Thirty-seven stroke-free, non-demented individuals (62-82 years of age) were included. We assessed brain structure, invasively measured cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pulse pressure, and magnetic resonance-quantified arterial and CSF flow pulsatility, as well as arterial pulse pressure. Using both multivariate partial least squares and ordinary regression analyses, we identified a significant pattern of negative relationships between the volume of several brain regions and measures of intracranial pulsatility. The strongest relationships concerned the temporal lobe cortex and hippocampus. These findings were also coherent with observations of positive relationships between intracranial pulsatility and ventricular volume. In conclusion, elderly subjects with high intracranial pulsatility display smaller brain volume and larger ventricles, supporting the notion that excessive cerebral arterial pulsatility harms the brain. This calls for research investigating altered intracranial cardiac-related pulsatile stress as a potential risk factor that may cause or worsen the prognosis in subjects developing cognitive impairment and dementia.
颅内搏动过度被认为会损害脑微循环，导致老年人认知能力下降。我们研究了健康老年人脑结构与颅内搏动相关指标之间的关系。纳入了37名无中风、无痴呆的个体（年龄在62至82岁之间）。我们评估了脑结构，有创测量了脑脊液（CSF）脉压，通过磁共振量化了动脉和脑脊液流动搏动，以及动脉脉压。使用多元偏最小二乘法和普通回归分析，我们确定了几个脑区体积与颅内搏动指标之间存在显著的负相关关系模式。最强的关系涉及颞叶皮质和海马体。这些发现也与颅内搏动与脑室体积之间正相关的观察结果一致。总之，颅内搏动高的老年受试者脑体积较小，脑室较大，支持了过度的脑动脉搏动会损害大脑这一观点。这需要开展研究，调查颅内与心脏相关的搏动性应激改变作为一种潜在风险因素，可能导致认知障碍和痴呆患者的预后变差或使病情恶化。
