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לא רק שלחץ דם גבוה מעלה את הסיכון להתקפי לב, שבץ או מפרצת, הוא עלול גם להחריף את ההשפעות של מחלת אלצהיימר.

מחקר חדש של חוקרים מאוניברסיטת פיטסבורג גילה כי יתר לחץ דם מפחית את זרימת הדם במוחם של חולי אלצהיימר.

המחקר הראה כי בריאות תקינה של כלי הדם טובה גם למוח ואפילו בקרב אנשים הסובלים ממחלת אלצהיימר
“This study demonstrates that good vascular health is also good for the brain,” study co-author Oscar Lopez, M.D., University of Pittsburgh, was quoted as saying. “Even in people with Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to detect and aggressively treat hypertension and also to focus on disease prevention.”

Researchers used arterial spin-labeled magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the blood flow in the brains of 68 older adults. 48 of the participants did not have Alzheimer’s disease - of them 38 had hypertension; 20 were Alzheimer’s patients - 10 with hypertension, 10 without; and 20 had mild cognitive impairment - 10 with hypertension, 10 without. Mild cognitive impairment affects language, attention, and reasoning, and is a transition stage between normal aging deficits in the brain and more pronounced dementia.

Results show blood flow in the brain was substantially decreased in all the groups in patients with hypertension compared to those without it. Cerebral blood flow was lowest among the Alzheimer’s patients who had hypertension but the normal groups with hypertension had much lower cerebral blood flow than the normal group without hypertension.

The authors say the findings suggest hypertension - whether it is treated or untreated - may contribute to the pathology of Alzheimer’s by changing the blood flow to the brain.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

SOURCE: Annual Meeting of the Radiological Society of North America in Chicago, Illinois, Nov. 25-30, 2007

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