association of ultrasonographic parameters with subclinical white-matter hyperintensities in hypertensive patients协会超声参数与亚临床脑白质hyperintensities高血压患者.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology Volume 2012, Article ID 616572, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2012/616572 Research Article Association of Ultrasonographic Parameters with Subclinical White-Matter Hyperintensities in Hypertensive Patients Ioannis Heliopoulos,1 Dimitrios Artemis,1 Konstantinos Vadikolias,1 Grigorios Tripsianis,2 Charitomeni Piperidou,1 and Georgios Tsivgoulis1 1 Department of Neurology, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece 2 Department of Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece Correspondence should be addressed to Konstantinos Vadikolias, vadikosm@ Received 22 May 2012; Accepted 3 July 2012 Academic Editor: Richard C. Veith Copyright © 2012 Ioannis Heliopoulos et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Background and Purpose. Cerebral white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are regarded as typical MRI expressions of small- vessel disease (SVD) and are common in hypertensive patients. Hypertension induces pathologic changes in macrocirculation and in microcirculation. Changes in microcirculation may lead to SVD of brain and consequently to hypertensive end-organ damage. This damage is regarded the result of interactions between the macrovascular and microvascular levels. We sought to investigate the association of cerebral WMHs with ultrasonographic parameters of cerebral macrocirculation evaluated by carotid duplex ultrasound (CDU) and transcranial doppler (TCD). Subjects and Methods. The study was prospective, cross-sectional and con