The association between orthostatic hypotension and cognition and stroke: a meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies

Feasibility of Identifying Factors Related to Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementia in Real-World Data

A comprehensive view of factors associated with AD/ADRD will significantly aid in studies to develop new treatments for AD/ADRD and identify high-risk populations and patients for prevention efforts. In our study, we summarized the risk factors for AD/ADRD by reviewing existing meta-analyses and review articles on risk and preventive factors for AD/ADRD. In total, we extracted 477 risk factors in 10 categories from 537 studies. We constructed an interactive knowledge map to disseminate our study results. Most of the risk factors are accessible from structured Electronic Health Records (EHRs), and clinical narratives show promise as information sources. However, evaluating genomic risk factors using RWD remains a challenge, as genetic testing for AD/ADRD is still not a common practice and is poorly documented in both structured and unstructured EHRs. Considering the constantly evolving research on AD/ADRD risk factors, literature mining via NLP methods offers a solution to automatically update our knowledge map.

A synthesis of pathways linking diet, metabolic risk and cardiovascular disease: a framework to guide further research and approaches to evidence-based practice

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the most common non-communicable disease occurring globally. Although previous literature has provided useful insights into the important role that diet plays in CVD prevention and treatment, understanding the causal role of diets is a difficult task considering inherent and introduced weaknesses of observational (e.g. not properly addressing confounders and mediators) and experimental research designs (e.g. not appropriate or well designed). In this narrative review, we organised current evidence linking diet, as well as conventional and emerging physiological risk factors, with CVD risk, incidence and mortality in a series of diagrams. The diagrams presented can aid causal inference studies as they provide a visual representation of the types of studies underlying the associations between potential risk markers/factors for CVD. This may facilitate the selection of variables to be considered and the creation of analytical models. Evidence depicted in the diagrams was systematically collected from studies included in the British Nutrition Task Force report on diet and CVD and database searches, including Medline and Embase. Although several markers and disorders linked to conventional and emerging risk factors for CVD were identified, the causal link between many remains unknown. There is a need to address the multifactorial nature of CVD and the complex interplay between conventional and emerging risk factors with natural and built environments, while bringing the life course into the spotlight.

Diagnosis and treatment of orthostatic hypotension

Orthostatic hypotension is an unusually large decrease in blood pressure on standing that increases the risk of adverse outcomes even when asymptomatic. Improvements in haemodynamic profiling with continuous blood pressure measurements have uncovered four major subtypes: initial orthostatic hypotension, delayed blood pressure recovery, classic orthostatic hypotension, and delayed orthostatic hypotension. Clinical presentations are varied and range from cognitive slowing with hypotensive unawareness or unexplained falls to classic presyncope and syncope. Establishing whether symptoms are due to orthostatic hypotension requires careful history taking, a thorough physical examination, and supine and upright blood pressure measurements. Management and prognosis vary according to the underlying cause, with the main distinction being whether orthostatic hypotension is neurogenic or non-neurogenic. Neurogenic orthostatic hypotension might be the earliest clinical manifestation of Parkinson's disease or related synucleinopathies, and often coincides with supine hypertension. The emerging variety of clinical presentations advocates a stepwise, individualised, and primarily non-pharmacological approach to the management of orthostatic hypotension. Such an approach could include the cessation of blood pressure lowering drugs, adoption of lifestyle measures (eg, counterpressure manoeuvres), and treatment with pharmacological agents in selected cases.

Prevalence of orthostatic hypertension and its association with cerebrovascular diagnoses in patients with suspected TIA and minor stroke

Purpose

We aimed to compare the rate of stroke, transient ischemic attack, and cerebrovascular disease diagnoses across groups of patients based on their orthostatic blood pressure response in a transients ischemic attack clinic setting.

Materials and Methods

We retrospectively analysed prospectively collected data from 3201 patients referred to a transient ischemic attack (TIA)/minor stroke outpatients clinic. Trained nurses measured supine and standing blood pressure using an automated blood pressure device and the patients were categorized based on their orthostatic blood pressure change into four groups: no orthostatic blood pressure rise, systolic orthostatic hypertension, diastolic orthostatic hypertension, and combined orthostatic hypertension. Then, four stroke physicians, who were unaware of patients' orthostatic BP response, assessed the patients and made diagnoses based on clinical and imaging data. We compared the rate of stroke, TIA, and cerebrovascular disease (either stroke or TIA) diagnoses across the study groups using Pearson's χ² test. The effect of confounders was adjusted using a multivariate logistic regression analysis.

Results

Cerebrovascular disease was significantly less common in patients with combined systolic and diastolic orthostatic hypertension compared to the "no rise" group [OR = 0.56 (95% CI 0.35–0.89]. The odds were even lower among the subgroups of patients with obesity [OR = 0.31 (0.12–0.80)], without history of smoking [OR 0.34 (0.15–0.80)], and without hypertension [OR = 0.42 (95% CI 0.19–0.92)]. We found no significant relationship between orthostatic blood pressure rise with the diagnosis of stroke. However, the odds of TIA were significantly lower in patients with diastolic [OR 0.82 (0.68–0.98)] and combined types of orthostatic hypertension [OR = 0.54 (0.32–0.93)]; especially in patients younger than 65 years [OR = 0.17 (0.04–0.73)] without a history of hypertension [OR = 0.34 (0.13–0.91)], and patients who did not take antihypertensive therapy [OR = 0.35 (0.14–0.86)].

Conclusion

Our data suggest that orthostatic hypertension may be a protective factor for TIA among younger and normotensive patients.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12872-022-02600-1.

A case control study of occupation and cardiovascular disease risk in Japanese men and women

We aimed to investigate the risks of cardiovascular diseases associated with specific occupations, using a nation-wide, multicentre, hospital-based registry data from the Inpatient Clinico-Occupational Survey. The analysis included 539,110 controls (non-circulatory disease) and 23,792 cases (cerebral infarction, intracerebral/subarachnoid hemorrhage, acute myocardial infarction) aged ≥ 20 years who were initially hospitalized during 2005–2015. The participants’ occupational and clinical histories were collected by interviewers and medical doctors. Occupations were coded into 81 categories according to the Japanese standard occupation classification. Multivariable logistic regression analysis adjusted for age, admission year and hospital, smoking, alcohol consumption, hypertension, and shift-work was conducted by sex using general clerical workers as the reference. Increased risks of cerebral infarction, intracerebral hemorrhage, subarachnoid hemorrhage, and acute myocardial infarction, were observed in 15, 20, 25, and 1 occupation(s) in men, and 9, 2, 2, and 10 occupations in women. Motor vehicle drivers, food and drink preparatory workers, fishery workers, cargo workers, civil engineer workers, and other manual workers in men and other manual workers in women faced increased risks of all three stroke subtypes. Our findings demonstrate associations between specific occupations and the risk of cardiovascular disease incidence and suggest that the risk may vary by occupation.

Orthostatic hypotension assessed by active standing is associated with worse cognition in geriatric rehabilitation inpatients, RESORT

PURPOSE

Geriatric rehabilitation inpatients who suffer from acute and chronic diseases that aggravate blood pressure (BP) dysregulation, may be particularly susceptible to orthostatic hypotension (OH). OH may increase the risk of cerebral small vessel disease and subsequent white matter hyperintensities inducing cognitive impairment (CI). This study investigates the association between OH and cognition in geriatric rehabilitation inpatients.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Geriatric rehabilitation inpatients of the observational, longitudinal REStORing health of acutely unwell adulTs (RESORT) cohort in Melbourne, Australia, underwent intermittent BP measurements during active standing or partial postural change to sitting (when unable to stand). OH was defined as a systolic BP drop ≥20 mmHg and/or diastolic BP drop ≥10 mmHg within three minutes after postural change. CI included dementia diagnosis, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score <24 points (categorized as 18-23 (mild CI) and <18 points (severe CI)), Montreal Cognitive Assessment score <26 points or Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale score <23 points.

RESULTS

In geriatric rehabilitation inpatients (n=1232, mean age 82.3 years (SD 8.2), 57.5% female), OH, CI and dementia prevalence was 20.0%, 61.0% and 20.4% respectively. MMSE was scored 18-23 in 32.6% and <18 points in 27.8% of patients (n=1033). In standing patients (51.7%), OH was associated with CI (p=0.045) and dementia (p=0.021), with a trend for MMSE scores <18 points (p=0.080), but not for MMSE scores 18-23 points (p=0.528). No association was found between seated OH and cognition.

CONCLUSION

OH assessed by active standing using intermittent BP measurements was associated with worse cognition in geriatric rehabilitation inpatients.