Background
Hypertension is a syndrome with elevated blood pressure as the main
clinical manifestation, with or without a variety of cardiovascular risk
factors, which can cause a variety of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular
diseases, and can even cause heart, brain, kidney and other organ
failures1. Elderly patients are the population with a
high incidence of hypertension2. The pathogenesis of
hypertension is not clear. Related factors of hypertension include
thickening of the arterial wall and decreased
elasticity3. Studies4,5 have shown
that blood pressure fluctuations and pulse pressure index changes in
elderly hypertensive patients can cause
cognitive impairment(CI), yet the
potential mechanisms remain unclear.
CI refers to a series of pathological phenomena caused by abnormal brain
functions related to learning, memory and thinking
judgment6. It has significant physical, psychological,
social and economic consequences for patients, caregivers and health
care systems, and with the aging of the population, the burden of
disease has increased exponentially7,8.
Studies9,10 have shown that the probability of CI
turning into dementia is extremely high, and the progress is extremely
fast. According to statistics11,12, China currently
has more than 10 million dementia patients, becoming one of the fastest
growing countries in the world, resulting in high economic and social
resource burdens. Studies13-15 have shown that
persistent hypertension is an important risk factor for cognitive
impairment. At the same time, more and more scholars have found that
there is a certain correlation between blood pressure variability and
cognitive function, but the results of the study are not consistent.
Therefore, we aimed to conduct a meta-analysis to explore the
association between blood pressure variability and cognitive function,
and to provide reliable evidence support for the early intervention of
hypertension and the prevention of CI.