title: Diffusional kurtosis imaging analysis in patients with hypertension.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Hypertension is associated with substantial morbidity in Japan. The aim of this work was to evaluate whether hypertension is associated with white matter microstructural changes by using diffusional kurtosis imaging (DKI).
  
  
  METHODS
  We explored the regional patterns of white matter alteration in 15 hypertensive middle-aged male participants and 11 normotensive controls by using DKI-based whole-brain analysis. In addition, we investigated whether the observed white matter microstructural changes were related to systolic or diastolic blood pressure by using Pearson's correlation coefficient analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Mean diffusional kurtosis (MDK) values were significantly higher in hypertensive participants than in normotensive participants (P < 0.05; family-wise error correction for multiple comparisons), indicating widespread microstructural changes in white matter. Moreover, we noted a statistically significant positive correlation between systolic and diastolic blood pressure and MDK values of the whole brain.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that microstructural white matter changes occur in middle-aged men with hypertension, even before the onset of cerebrovascular disease. Thus, DKI might be used as a screening tool for risk of cerebrovascular disease. This highlights the need to further elucidate the relationship between hypertension and DKI of the brain.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry Hospital, Kodaira, Tokyo, 187-8551, Japan, kshimoji@ncnp.go.jp.
authors.forename: Keigo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimoji
authors.forename: Takanori
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Uka
authors.forename: Yoshifumi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tamura
authors.forename: Mariko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yoshida
authors.forename: Koji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kamagata
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hori
authors.forename: Yumiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Motoi
authors.forename: Hirotaka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Watada
authors.forename: Ryuzo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kawamori
authors.forename: Shigeki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Aoki
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011446:Prospective Studies