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Published on: November 20, 2015
Influence of preeclampsia and late-life hypertension on MRI measures of cortical atrophy
Mekala R Raman1, Nirubol Tosakulwong, Samantha M Zuk
1aDepartment of Radiology bDepartment of Health Sciences Research cDepartment of Information Technology dDepartment of Obstetrics and Gynecology eDepartment of Psychiatry and Psychology fDepartment of Neurology gDivisions of Biomedical Statistics and Informatics and Epidemiology, Department of Health Sciences Research hDepartment of Surgery iDepartment of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering jDivision of Nephrology and Hypertension, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Objective:
Women with a history of preeclampsia are at an increased risk of hypertension and structural brain changes. However, the combined effect of both preeclampsia and late-life hypertension on brain structural changes is not known and was investigated in this study.
Methods:
Participants were identified from the population-based Rochester Epidemiology Project cohort. Four groups of women were recruited and investigated in this study: first, women with a history of normotensive pregnancy who have late-life hypertension (n = 8, median age = 62), second, women with a history of normotensive pregnancy who do not have late-life hypertension (n = 32, median age = 59), third, women with a history of preeclampsia who have late-life hypertension (n = 24, median age = 60), and fourth, women with a history of preeclampsia who do not have late-life hypertension (n = 16, median age = 57). Cerebrovascular disease lesions on MRI, and total gray matter volumes were assessed.
Results:
Total gray matter volumes were smaller in women with a history of preeclampsia and late-life hypertension compared with the other groups. Voxel-based morphometry demonstrated that the volume changes were localized to the posterior brain regions, particularly the occipital lobe gray matter in women with a history of preeclampsia and late-life hypertension.
Conclusion:
Having late-life hypertension superimposed on a history of preeclampsia affects the brain structure differently than having either a history of preeclampsia alone or a history of normotensive pregnancy either with or without late-life hypertension.
