High blood pressure impairs memory

High blood pressure may cause changes in blood flow and brain activity that affect short-term memory, according to new research. In patients with high blood pressure, or hypertension, blood vessels often remodel themselves in ways that can impair blood flow. To investigate whether this affected brain function, the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and Western Psychiatric Institute used a brain scan called positron emission tomography (PET) to compare blood flow in the brains of people with high blood pressure and those without hypertension. They performed PET scans on 33 patients with hypertension and 62 patients with normal blood pressure. The patients ranged in age from 50 to 70. All participants were asked to perform a series of standardized memory tests during the PET scans. The patients with high blood pressure were not taking medication and had no history of stroke. Overall, the patients with high blood pressure scored slightly less on tests of short-term memory. In patients with hypertension there was less blood flow in certain parts of the brain, and more blood flow in the other regions of the brain to compensate. The analysis of the PET scans did indicate an increase blood flow in the left hemisphere among patients with hypertension who had memory loss. That compensation, according to researchers, explains the slight memory loss in these patients. However the memory changes recorded in these patients were very slight.

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