School of Medicine, Chang Gung University, Taoyuan, Taiwan.
Department of Psychiatry, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Chiayi, Taiwan.
Sci Rep. 2024 Feb 25;14(1):4580. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54996-9.
Hypertension (HTN) affects over 1.2 billion individuals worldwide and is defined as systolic blood pressure (BP) ≥ 140 mmHg and diastolic BP ≥ 90 mmHg. Hypertension is also considered a high risk factor for cerebrovascular diseases, which may lead to vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). VCI is associated with executive dysfunction and is also a transitional stage between hypertension and vascular dementia. Hence, it is essential to establish a reliable approach to diagnosing the severity of VCI. In 28 HTN (51-83 yrs; 18 males, 10 females) and 28 healthy controls (HC) (51-75 yrs; 7 males, 21 females), we investigated which regions demonstrate alterations in the resting-state functional connectome due to vascular cognitive impairment in HTN by using the amplitude of the low-frequency fluctuations (ALFF), regional homogeneity (ReHo), graph theoretical analysis (GTA), and network-based statistic (NBS) methods. In the group comparison between ALFF/ReHo, HTN showed reduced spontaneous activity in the regions corresponding to vascular or metabolic dysfunction and enhanced brain activity, mainly in the primary somatosensory cortex and prefrontal areas. We also observed cognitive dysfunction in HTN, such as executive function, processing speed, and memory. Both the GTA and NBS analyses indicated that the HTN demonstrated complex local segregation, worse global integration, and weak functional connectivity. Our findings show that resting-state functional connectivity was altered, particularly in the frontal and parietal regions, by hypertensive individuals with potential vascular cognitive impairment.
高血压（HTN）影响着全球超过 12 亿人，其定义为收缩压（BP）≥140mmHg 和舒张压（BP）≥90mmHg。高血压也被认为是脑血管疾病的一个高危因素，可能导致血管性认知障碍（VCI）。VCI 与执行功能障碍有关，也是高血压和血管性痴呆之间的过渡阶段。因此，建立一种可靠的方法来诊断 VCI 的严重程度至关重要。在 28 例高血压（51-83 岁；18 名男性，10 名女性）和 28 名健康对照组（HC）（51-75 岁；7 名男性，21 名女性）中，我们通过使用低频振幅（ALFF）、局部一致性（ReHo）、图论分析（GTA）和基于网络的统计（NBS）方法，研究了由于高血压引起的血管性认知障碍，哪些区域的静息态功能连接体发生改变。在 ALFF/ReHo 的组间比较中，高血压患者在与血管或代谢功能障碍相对应的区域显示出自发性活动减少，而在初级体感皮层和前额区域等主要区域显示出大脑活动增强。我们还观察到高血压患者的认知功能障碍，如执行功能、处理速度和记忆。GTA 和 NBS 分析均表明，高血压患者表现出复杂的局部分离、较差的全局整合和较弱的功能连接。我们的研究结果表明，静息态功能连接在高血压患者中发生了改变，特别是在额顶叶区域，这些患者可能存在潜在的血管性认知障碍。
