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MONDAY, June 17, 2019 (HealthDay News) — For patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer disease, treatment with nilvadipine lowers systolic blood pressure and increases cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the hippocampus, according to a study published online June 17 in Hypertension<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Daan L.K. de Jong, from the Radboud University Medical Center in Nijmegen, Netherlands, and colleagues conducted a preplanned substudy within a randomized, placebo-controlled study to examine how six months of treatment with nilvadipine would affect CBF in 58 patients with mild-to-moderate Alzheimer disease. Patients were randomly allocated to either nilvadipine or placebo (29 in each group).<\/p>\n
The researchers found that treatment with nilvadipine lowered systolic blood pressure (\u0394 = \u221211.5 [95 percent confidence interval (CI), \u221219.7 to \u22123.2] mm Hg; P < 0.01), while whole-brain gray-matter CBF remained stable with treatment (\u0394 = 5.4 [95 percent CI, \u22126.4 to 17.2] mL\/100 g\/min; P = 0.36). In the hippocampus, CBF increased (left: \u0394 = 24.4 [95 percent CI, 4.3 to 44.5] mL\/100 g\/min; P = 0.02; right: \u0394 = 20.1 [95 percent CI, \u22120.6 to 40.8] mL\/100 g\/min; P = 0.06). CBF did not change significantly in the posterior cingulate cortex (\u0394 = 5.2 [95 percent CI, \u221216.5 to 27.0] mL\/100 g\/min; P = 0.63) or other regions of interest.<\/p>\n
“This high blood pressure treatment holds promise as it doesn’t appear to decrease blood flow to the brain, which could cause more harm than benefit,” a coauthor said in a statement. “Even though no medical treatment is without risk, getting treatment for high blood pressure could be important to maintain brain health in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.”<\/p>\n
One author disclosed a pending patent for nilvadipine.<\/p>\n
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