Phillip Tully
The importance of blood pressure and its variability to dementia: an individual participant data meta-analysis from the VARIABLE BRAIN consortium.
Award
Dementia Australia Research Foundation – South Australian Project Grant
Status
Completed
Start Date
1 March 2019
About the project
The brain requires a continual supply of oxygen via regulatory mechanisms that ensure a constant blood flow and pressure. High blood pressure, such as that measured by a GP, is related to the risk of developing dementia. Yet blood pressure can fluctuate up and down when sitting, standing, sleeping, and exercising, and some changes may also occur over time (days, weeks, months, years). We were interested in how these fluctuations in a person’s blood pressure were associated with brain functioning either as a diagnosis of dementia or cognitive impairment.
We looked at 20 different studies who measured blood pressure change and diagnosis of dementia or cognitive impairment. By analyzing data from more than 7 million persons (7,899,697) we found that fluctuation or variability in blood pressure was associated with dementia or cognitive impairment. In fact, we found that this variation in blood pressure was more strongly associated with dementia and cognitive impairment than was a person’s average blood pressure. In other words, the ups and downs of a person’s blood pressure over time might be more important to assess the risk of developing dementia or cognitive impairment than the average blood pressure.
Publications and presentations resulting from award
VARIABLE BRAIN consortium. The association between blood pressure variability (BPV) with dementia and cognitive function: a systematic review and meta-analysis protocol. Syst Rev 7, 163 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-018-0811-9
de Heus RAA, Tzourio C, Lee EJL, Opozda M, Vincent AD, Anstey KJ, Hofman A, Kario K, Lattanzi S, Launer LJ, Ma Y, Mahajan R, Mooijaart SP, Nagai M, Peters R, Turnbull D, Yano Y; VARIABLE BRAIN Consortium; Claassen JAHR, Tully PJ. Association Between Blood Pressure Variability With Dementia and Cognitive Impairment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Hypertension. 2021 Nov;78(5):1478-1489. https://doi.org/10.1161/HYPERTENSIONAHA.121.17797. Epub 2021 Sep 20. PMID: 34538105; PMCID: PMC8516811.
Where are they now?
At the time of award, Dr Tully was a NHMRC early career research fellow in the Discipline of Medicine at the University of Adelaide where he led the Vascular & Brain Health Laboratory.
