title: Spectral analyses of systolic blood pressure and heart rate variability and their association with cognitive performance in elderly hypertensive subjects.
abstract: Systolic hypertension is associated with cognitive decline in the elderly. Altered blood pressure (BP) variability is a possible mechanism of reduced cognitive performance in elderly hypertensives. We hypothesized that altered beat-to-beat systolic BP variability is associated with reduced global cognitive performance in elderly hypertensive subjects. In exploratory analyses, we also studied the correlation between diverse discrete cognitive domains and indices of systolic BP and heart rate variability. Disproving our initial hypothesis, we have shown that hypertension and low education, but not indices of systolic BP and heart rate variability, were independent predictors of lower global cognitive performance. However, exploratory analyses showed that the systolic BP variability in semi-upright position was an independent predictor of matrix reasoning (B = 0.08 ± .03, P-value = 0.005), whereas heart rate variability in semi-upright position was an independent predictor of the executive function score (B = -6.36 ± 2.55, P-value = 0.02). We conclude that myogenic vascular and sympathetic modulation of systolic BP do not contribute to reduced global cognitive performance in treated hypertensive subjects. Nevertheless, our results suggest that both systolic BP and heart rate variability might be associated with modulation of frontal lobe cognitive domains, such as executive function and matrix reasoning.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: W B
authors.initials: WB
authors.lastname: Santos
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: J M D
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Matoso
authors.affiliation: Physical Activity and Health Promotion Laboratory, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maltez
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Casanova
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: I F H
authors.initials: IF
authors.lastname: Moreira
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Lourenço
authors.affiliation: Physical Activity and Health Promotion Laboratory, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: W D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Monteiro
authors.affiliation: Physical Activity and Health Promotion Laboratory, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: P T V
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Farinatti
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Fluminense Federal University, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oigman
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: M F T
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Neves
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Medicine, State University of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: M L G
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Correia
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011187:Posture