<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<recommendedContent xmlns="http://api.mspoke.com">
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_130"
                     title="Dementia, Hypertension Linked Again (CME/CE)"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hypertension/tb/17944?impressionId=1265771855072"
                     
      Another study has found that hypertension may contribute to increased risk of dementia, this time with evidence of actual brain abnormalities.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Data from an offshoot of the Women&apos;s Health Initiative found that participants&apos; baseline blood pressure was strongly correlated with volume of lesions in their brains&apos; white matter, according to Lewis Kuller, MD, DrPH, of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Along with earlier studies linking blood pressure to clinical dementia, the evidence &quot;supports tight control of blood pressure levels, especially beginning at younger and middle age as a possible and perhaps only way to prevent dementia,&quot; Kuller and colleagues concluded online in the &lt;em&gt;Journal of Clinical Hypertension&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;One study reported in 2006 found that successful hypertension control reduced the risk of dementia, while another reported the following year indicated that uncontrolled high blood pressure increased the risk. (See &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hypertension/3037&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/Cardiology/Hypertension/3037&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;Blood Pressure Medication May Benefit Older Brains&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/VASCOG/6147&quot; mce_href=&quot;http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/VASCOG/6147&quot; target=&quot;_blank&quot;&gt;VAS-COG: Hypertension Linked to Cognitive Decline in Older Patients&lt;/a&gt;)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kuller and colleagues analyzed data collected from 1,424 participants in the Women&apos;s Health Initiative who agreed to undergo MRI scans performed an average of eight years after starting the trial. Blood pressure was measured at baseline and annually throughout the trial.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;About half the women had been assigned to placebo in the trial, which primarily was designed to test two hormone replacement regimens. Some 436 received a combination of conjugated equine estrogen and medroxyprogesterone acetate, while the remainder received the equine estrogen alone.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kuller and colleagues found significant relationships between baseline systolic blood pressure and abnormal white matter lesion volumes as measured with MRI.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among participants not taking blood pressure medications, the lesion volume averaged 4.07 cm&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; for those with baseline pressure of less than 100 mm Hg, compared with 5.20 cm&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt;among those with systolic pressure of 140 mm Hg or higher (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.0044 for trend).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A similar but weaker relationship was seen for lesion volumes according to systolic pressure at the last available measurement (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.03) among subjects who were not on antihypertensive therapy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Baseline systolic pressure was also significantly correlated with lesion volumes in women taking blood pressure drugs, Kuller and colleagues reported.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Women with baseline pressure below 100 mm Hg had lesion volumes averaging 5.56 cm&lt;sup&gt;3&lt;/sup&gt; whereas those with pressures of 140 mm Hg or higher at baseline had average lesion volume of 6.09 mm Hg (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.002 for trend).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There was a nonsignificant trend toward higher lesion volumes with increasing systolic pressure at the last measurement.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After adjusting for age, race, treatment assignment, total cranial volume, clinical site, and time from study termination to MRI scan, the researchers found that women with normal blood pressure (&amp;lt;140/90 mm Hg) had lower lesion volumes, not only in their white matter but also in the basal ganglia, than participants with high blood pressure.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The finding held both for baseline blood pressure measurements and for pressure at the last available evaluation (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.0001 for all comparisons).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;High baseline blood pressure, though not later measurements, was also significantly correlated with the number of brain regions containing abnormal white matter lesions (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.035).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Regions in which high blood pressure seemed to promote abnormal lesions most strongly included frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes in both hemispheres. The frontal lobes in particular have been associated with vascular dementia and abnormal performance on cognition tests.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Occipital lobes and the corpus callosum did not appear significantly affected, the MRI data indicated.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;The association of blood pressure levels with white matter abnormalities years before the MRI is consistent with a long incubation period for the development of the white matter abnormalities,&quot; Kuller and colleagues wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;They said their findings are also consistent with earlier observations that midlife blood pressure is more strongly related to dementia later on than is blood pressure measured at older ages.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Kuller and colleagues cautioned that it remained uncertain whether blood pressure treatment can prevent development of white matter abnormalities. Nor is it clear what the most appropriate blood pressure targets should be, or what type of treatment may be best.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We have only suggestive evidence that the progression of white matter lesions can be slowed by blood pressure-lowering therapy,&quot; they wrote, calling for more clinical trials to clear up these issues.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Nevertheless, they concluded, &quot;a prudent clinical approach at present would encourage maintaining as low a blood pressure as possible, especially beginning in young and middle ages, in order to possibly prevent dementia as well as stroke. There are no other potentially effective preventive therapies.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Study limitations included a lack of MRI data on brain infarcts, no corroborating clinical data on cognitive performance, and, of course, the trial&apos;s restriction to women.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;Wyeth funded the data analysis in this study. The Women&apos;s Health Initiative was sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;No potential conflicts of interest were reported.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_117"
                     title="ARBs Linked to Lower Dementia Risk (CME/CE)"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/AlzheimersDisease/tb/17928?impressionId=1265771855072"
                     
      Older patients treated with an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) had a significantly lower risk of dementia and nursing home admission than patients treated with other cardiovascular drugs, data from a large prospective cohort study showed.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;The incidence of dementia was 20% to 24% lower, and nursing-home admissions were reduced by half among patients on ARBs, Benjamin Wolozin, MD, PhD, of Boston University, and colleagues reported online in &lt;em&gt;BMJ&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Results were similar when patients were categorized by dementia or the more specific diagnosis of Alzheimer&apos;s disease, suggesting the ARBs&apos; benefits involved more than cardiovascular effects.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;&quot;It&apos;s reasonable to conclude that the ARBs are acting in part by helping with stroke, but I doubt that&apos;s the only reason,&quot; Wolozin said in an interview.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;We looked at blood-brain barrier penetration, and the ARBs that get into the brain seem to help a little more than the ARBs that don&apos;t. That&apos;s consistent with what some other people have seen with ACE inhibitors.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Several comprehensive summaries have described the role of the renin-angiotensin system (RAS) in Alzheimer&apos;s disease and the effects of RAS inhibitors on cognitive function. Moreover, studies have shown associations between ARB therapy and preservation of cognitive function.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Preclinical and clinical evidence suggests ARBs help maintain cognitive function by mechanisms unrelated to antihypertensive effects, the authors wrote.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the relative effects of ARBs and angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors on dementia outcomes had not been studied carefully.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To address the issue, Wolozin and colleagues analyzed a Veterans Affairs administrative database covering 2002 to 2006. The analysis included 819,419 patients ages 65 or older with cardiovascular disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The study population was grouped by type of cardiovascular medication received: ARBs, ACE inhibitors (primarily lisinopril), and other cardiovascular drugs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The primary outcome was time to diagnosis of Alzheimer&apos;s disease or dementia. Disease progression was defined as the time to nursing home admission or death among patients with preexisting Alzheimer&apos;s disease or dementia.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The mean age of the population was about 74, and 98% of the patients were men. The authors reported that 819,491 participants were evaluable for study of Alzheimer&apos;s disease and 799,069 for dementia. About 12,000 patients were treated with ARBs, 93,000 with lisinopril, and 714,000 with other cardiovascular drugs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Comparison of Alzheimer&apos;s incidence showed a 19% reduction with ARBs versus ACE inhibitors, including lisinopril, (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.96, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.016) and a 16% reduction versus other cardiovascular drugs (HR 0.84, 95% 0.71 to 1.00, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.045).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;New cases of dementia were 19% lower with ARBs than with lisinopril and other ACE inhibitors (HR 0.81, 95% CI 0.73 to 0.90, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.001) and 24% lower than other cardiovascular drugs (HR 0.76, 95% CI 0.69 to 0.84, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;&amp;lt;0.001).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Among patients with preexisting Alzheimer&apos;s disease, treatment with an ARB was associated with a 49% reduction in the rate of nursing home admission (HR 0.51, 95% 0.36 to 0.72, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.0001) and a 17% reduction in death (HR 0.83, 95% CI 0.71 to 0.97, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.022).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The authors found a dose-response effect of ARBs on dementia incidence, as higher doses were associated with lower rates of dementia. The association held true for analysis of individual drugs in the class.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Analyses of combination RAS-inhibiting therapy also showed lower rates of Alzheimer&apos;s disease, dementia, and nursing home admission among patients treated with an ARB and an ACE inhibitor compared with either class of drug alone.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The study was funded by the Retirement Research Foundation and the Casten Foundation.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The authors disclosed no relationships aside from those involving the funding sources for the study.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20100101_19_108"
                     title="Gene Variant Linked to Lower Dementia Risk (CME/CE)"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="http://www.medpagetoday.com/Neurology/Dementia/tb/17915?impressionId=1265771855072"
                     
      A genetic variant associated with higher HDL cholesterol levels may protect against the development of dementia and Alzheimer&apos;s disease, a preliminary study showed.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Older individuals who had a substitution of valine for isoleucine on both alleles of the cholesteryl ester transfer protein (&lt;em&gt;CETP&lt;/em&gt;) gene were 72% less likely to develop dementia during follow-up (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.02), according to Richard Lipton, MD, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, and colleagues.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Those with the variant were also 69% less likely to develop Alzheimer&apos;s disease specifically (&lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.04), the researchers reported in the Jan. 13 issue of the &lt;em&gt;Journal of the American Medical Association&lt;/em&gt;.&lt;br&gt;
&lt;br&gt;Although causal relationships could not be established, Lipton speculated that the genetic variant could be protective by reducing vascular risk factors, which are also risk factors for the two most common forms of dementia, Alzheimer&apos;s disease and multi-infarct dementia.&lt;p&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;In addition,&quot; he told &lt;em&gt;MedPage Today&lt;/em&gt;, &quot;we know &lt;em&gt;CETP&lt;/em&gt; is expressed in the brain and there&apos;s at least some possibility that this genetic variant plays a direct protective role against the accumulation of amyloid, although that is really speculative.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Polymorphisms in the &lt;em&gt;CETP&lt;/em&gt; gene, which is involved in reverse cholesterol transport, have been associated with longer life and improved cognition in a sample of Ashkenazi Jews. But other studies have yielded conflicting results.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The substitution of valine for isoleucine at codon 405 effectively inhibits the gene&apos;s function and results in higher levels of HDL cholesterol.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;To see whether this variant is associated with successful brain aging, in addition to aging in general, Lipton and his colleagues turned to the Einstein Aging Study, a prospective study of adults 70 and older living in the Bronx, one of New York City&apos;s five boroughs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;All 523 adults included in the current analysis were free from dementia at baseline and underwent annual neuropsychological and neurological testing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Overall, 45% of the participants were heterozygous for the amino acid substitution for valine, 21% were homozygous for the substitution, and 34% were homozygous for the original gene configuration with isoleucine instead of valine.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;At baseline, cognitive performance on tests of episodic memory, attention, and psychomotor speed were similar between the three genotype groups.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;However, in a longitudinal analysis, valine homozygotes had a significantly slower decline in episodic memory than isoleucine homozygotes (0.22 points slower per year of age, &lt;em&gt;P&lt;/em&gt;=0.03) after controlling for sex, education, race/ethnicity, comorbidities, and presence of the &lt;em&gt;APOE &lt;/em&gt;&amp;#949;4 allele, which has been associated with an increased susceptibility for Alzheimer&apos;s disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lipton and his colleagues noted that this difference is small because the memory test is scored on a 48-point scale.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There were no significant differences between the groups in performance over time on the tests of attention and psychomotor speed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;During a mean follow-up of 4.3 years, 40 individuals developed dementia  --  35 had probable or possible Alzheimer&apos;s disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Compared with isoleucine homozygotes, valine homozygotes had lower risks of dementia (HR 0.28, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.85) and Alzheimer&apos;s disease (HR 0.31, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.95).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If confirmed in future studies, the findings could have clinical implications in the long term, Lipton said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He noted that there are drugs in development that inhibit &lt;em&gt;CETP&lt;/em&gt;, largely for the HDL-raising benefits. The effects of these drugs might mimic the biochemical phenotype of the variant evaluated in the current study.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;So perhaps those drugs ... might play a role in promoting healthy brain aging as well, although certainly that has not been shown,&quot; he said.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The researchers noted some caveats in their paper, including the need for other longitudinal studies with greater numbers of incident dementia cases and the possible misclassification of dementia and Alzheimer&apos;s disease.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div style=&quot;float:left;border-style:solid;border-width:1px;border-color:#8dabbc;font-family:arial;font-size:12px;background-color:#DBE9F2;padding:5px;&quot;&gt;&lt;p&gt;The Einstein Aging Study is supported by the National Institute on Aging. Lipton&apos;s co-authors reported receiving support from the NIA, from grants from the Einstein Clinical and Translation Science Award and the National Center for Research Resources, and from the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Lipton reported receiving compensation from Advanced Bionics, Allergan, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Cierra, Endo, GlaxoSmithKline, Minster, Merck, Neuralieve, Novartis, and Ortho-McNeil and receiving research funding from Allergan, Ortho-McNeil, Minster, Endo, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Neuralieve, and ProEthics. He reported that none of these relationships pertain to the material presented in the current study.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div style=&quot;clear:both;&quot;&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
    </recommendedItem>
    <recommendedItem id="20090101_1_50"
                     title="Lifetime Depression Linked to Brain Changes in Alzheimer&apos;s"
                     score="-0.005"
                     href="