Investigating the effect of hypertension on vascular cognitive impairment by using the resting-state functional connectome.
Journal
Scientific reports
Journal Volume
14
Journal Issue
1
Start Page
Article 4580
ISSN
2045-2322
Date Issued
2024-02-25
Author(s)
Hung, Tai-Hsin
Chen, Vincent Chin-Hung
Chuang, Yu-Chen
Hsu, Yen-Hsuan
Tsai, Yuan-Hsiung
McIntyre, Roger S
Weng, Jun-Cheng
Abstract
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.
Subjects
Executive dysfunction
Functional connectivity
Hypertension
Resting-state functional MRI
Vascular cognitive impairment
SDGs
Type
journal article