Abstract-We hypothesized that carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV), a marker of arterial stiffness, interacts with age such that the magnitude of associations between PWV and cognitive performance are greater with increasing age and that this interaction is observed despite adjustments for demographic variables, mean arterial pressure, and cardiovascular risk factors. PWV was estimated using applanation tonometry in 409 dementia-and stroke-free participants of the Maine-Syracuse Longitudinal Study (24 to 92 years of age; 62.3% women). Using linear regression analyses in a cross-sectional design, associations between PWV and age and the interaction of PWV and age were examined in relation to a global composite score, the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Similarities test (abstract reasoning), and 4 cognitive domains indexed by multiple cognitive measures. Adjusting for age, gender, education, height, weight, heart rate, mean arterial pressure, and antihypertensive treatment, PWV-by-age interactions were obtained for the global, visual-spatial organization and memory, scanning and tracking, and verbal episodic memory composites, as well as similarities. The combination of higher PWV and age resulted in progressively lower cognitive performance. This finding was the same with an extended model, which also included adjustment for cardiovascular risk factors and other confounds. PWV interacts with age in a multiplicative way to exert a negative influence on cognitive performance level. Early interventions to prevent an increase in arterial stiffness could possibly play an important role in the preservation of cognitive ability. Key Words: pulse wave velocity Ⅲ hypertension Ⅲ age Ⅲ cognitive performance Ⅲ cognitive functioning Ⅲ cognition Ⅲ blood pressure H ypertension is a risk factor for lowered cognitive performance and dementia. 1,2 In cross-sectional, prospective, and longitudinal studies, inverse associations between blood pressure (BP) and cognitive performance level are observed over a wide range of systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial BP (MAP) levels. 3-7 Many hypertensionrelated changes in the brain have been identified and posited as the mechanisms underlying relations between BP and cognition. 1,2,8 Investigations of BP-by-age interactions have been driven by a long-standing hypothesis that age-and hypertensionassociated changes in brain structure and function interact and, therefore, the magnitude of associations between BP and cognition will be higher in older rather than in younger individuals. 9 Reviews of the literature indicate little in the way of consistent support for this hypothesis. 2,8,10 Crosssectional studies report either no interactions of age with BP or interactions in the opposite direction, such that systolic, diastolic, and MAP are more strongly related to cognition in younger rather than in middle-aged adults. 2,8,10 There is evidence that disproportionately poorer cognitive performance in older rather than in younger persons would be observed with measures of arterial stiffnes...

Early detection of mild to moderate kidney disease is an important public health concern with regard to cognitive decline.

Modifiable risk factors, such as diet, are becomingly increasingly important in the management of cardiovascular disease, one of the greatest major causes of death and disease burden. Few studies have examined the role of diet as a possible means of reducing arterial stiffness, as measured by pulse wave velocity, an independent predictor of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dairy food intake is associated with measures of arterial stiffness including carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity and pulse pressure. A cross-sectional analysis of a subset of the Maine Syracuse Longitudinal Study sample was performed. A linear decrease in pulse wave velocity was observed across increasing intakes of dairy food consumption (ranging from never/rarely to daily dairy food intake). The negative linear relationship between pulse wave velocity and intake of dairy food was independent of demographic variables, other cardiovascular disease risk factors and nutrition variables. The pattern of results was very similar for pulse pressure, while no association between dairy food intake and lipid levels was found. Further intervention studies are needed to ascertain whether dairy food intake may be an appropriate dietary intervention for the attenuation of age-related arterial stiffening and reduction of cardiovascular disease risk.