Associations of life-course cardiovascular risk factors with late-life cerebral haemodynamics

While the associations of mid-life cardiovascular risk factors with late-life white matter lesions (WMH) and cognitive decline have been established, the role of cerebral haemodynamics is unclear. We investigated the relation of late-life (69–71 years) arterial spin labelling (ASL) MRI-derived cerebral blood flow (CBF) with life-course cardiovascular risk factors (36–71 years) and late-life white matter hyperintensity (WMH) load in 282 cognitively healthy participants (52.8% female). Late-life (69–71 years) high systolic (B = −0.15) and diastolic (B = −0.25) blood pressure, and mean arterial pressure (B = −0.25) were associated with low grey matter (GM) CBF (p < 0.03), and white matter CBF (B = −0.25; B = −0.15; B = −0.13, p < 0.03, respectively). The association between systolic blood pressure and GM CBF differed between sexes (male/female B = −0.15/0.02, p = 0.04). No associations were found with early- or mid-life cardiovascular risk factors. Furthermore, WMHs were associated with cerebral haemodynamics but not cardiovascular risk factors. These findings suggest that cerebral blood flow autoregulation is able to maintain stable global cerebral haemodynamics until later in life. Future studies are encouraged to investigate why cardiovascular risk factors have differential effects on haemodynamics and WMH, and their implications for cognitive decline.