SynthesisJournal of the American Heart Association2025
Association Between Pulse Pressure and Structural Brain Changes in Aging: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Cross-Sectional and Longitudinal Studies.
Synthesis in Journal of the American Heart Association, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Cerebral amyloid associated with global cognition is differentially moderated by pulse pressure across education levels in The 90+ Study.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Physical function domain associations with cognitive domains in community-dwelling older adults.medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences · 2026Article
- Vascular stiffness predicts plasma markers of neurodegeneration among older African Americans.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundThe aim of this study was to investigate the associations between pulse pressure (PP) and age-related structural brain changes including brain volumes, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), fractional anisotropy, silent brain lesions, microbleeds, cerebral blood flow and metabolism, and beta-amyloid accumulation.
methodsSystematic review of PubMed (MEDLINE), Scopus, and Ovid Embase (from inception to January 2023) and references of included studies among adult populations was conducted. Findings were summarized narratively and by performing a fixed-effects meta-analysis. Publication bias was tested by a funnel plot and Egger's regression asymmetry test.
resultsForty-seven studies (7 longitudinal) were included (>20 000 participants). In cross-sectional studies, PP consistently positively associated with gray matter volume and white matter hyperintensities with pooled standardized regression coefficients of 0.02 (95% CI, 0.007-0.038) and 0.06 (95% CI, 0.021-0.093), SD increase in PP per 1 SD increase in gray matter volume and white matter hyperintensities, higher odds of having a silent brain lesions pooled odds ratio of 1.11 (95% CI, 1.03-1.20) for 1 SD increase in PP, and cortical beta-amyloid (pooled estimate not available). There was limited evidence of an association with hippocampal volume, fractional anisotropy and mean diffusivity, cerebral microbleeds, cerebral blood flow and velocity, and cerebral metabolism. Longitudinal studies reported a negative association between PP and change in hippocampal volume and positive association with cortical beta-amyloid accumulation, but inconsistent findings were reported for total brain volume and white matter hyperintensities. Longitudinal studies were not available for gray matter volume, fractional anisotropy, silent brain lesions, cerebral microbleeds, and metabolism. Meta-regression provided no evidence that mean study-level arterial pressure modified the relationship between PP and associated brain metric.
conclusionsCross-sectional studies suggest a significant positive association between PP to gray matter volume, WMH, silent brain lesions, and cortical beta-amyloid that warrants further investigation by sufficiently powered longitudinal studies.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.