Title: Dynamic Effects of Aortic Arch Stiffening on Pulsatile Energy Transmission to Cerebral Vasculature as A Determinant of Brain-Heart Coupling
Date: May 29, 2020
Link: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-65616-7
Drs. Kevin King and Niema Pahlevan published a work shedding new insights into how arteriosclerosis damages the brain. Dr. King’s prior work has shown that stiffening in the aorta is a better predictor of brain vascular health than current clinical assessments like blood pressure and lipids. In this work, we employed advanced models to show how stiffening of the aorta results in excess harmful high blood pressure being transmitted to the brain. This work is important as for unclear reasons, current measures of vascular risk have not been helpful in assessing risk of people later in life for dementia.