Aim: Cerebral white matter lesions (WML) are known to increase with age, as is left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction with normal contraction. Although aging is a common risk factor, the link between these diseases is not fully understood. The aim was to clarify this relationship, using the ratio between early diastolic mitral inflow and early diastolic mitral annular tissue velocity (E/E'). E/E' measured by tissue Doppler echocardiography offers an indicator of the severity of LV diastolic dysfunction, reflecting both diastolic LV stiffness and diastolic LV filling pressure. Methods:Participants comprised 75 patients aged between 65 and 75 years with normal LV contraction and no signs or history of symptomatic heart failure, ischemic heart diseases, atrial fibrillation, stroke, or cognitive dysfunction. The volume of WML was quantified on brain magnetic resonance imaging. Results:The participants were classified into three groups: Low E/E', E/E' ≤ 8; Middle E/E', 8 < E/E' < 15; and High E/E', E/E' ≥ 15. WML volume was 3.6 ± 3.0 mL in Low E/E', 5.4 ± 6.5 mL in Middle E/E' and 12.0 ± 11.0 mL in High E/E', increasing significantly with increased diastolic LV stiffness (Low vs High, P = 0.034; Middle vs High, P = 0.016). Linear regression analysis showed the positive association between the volume of WML and E/E' ratio (r = 0.377, P = 0.0009). Conclusions:This investigation identified an association between LV diastolic dysfunction and WML. Further investigations are required to clarify whether there is a direct association between the two diseases. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2014; 14 (Suppl. 2): 71-76.Keywords: cerebral white matter lesions, left ventricular diastolic dysfunction, ratio of early diastolic mitral inflow to early diastolic mitral annular tissue velocity.

Aim: Cerebral white matter hyperintensity (WMH) is highly prevalent in the elderly population, and increases the risk of dementia and stroke. We investigated the relationship between ambulatory blood pressure monitoring levels and quantitatively measured WMH volumes among elderly hypertensive patients with well-controlled blood pressure (BP) to re-evaluated effective hypertension management methods to prevent the progression of WMH. Methods:Participants comprised 84 hypertensive patients aged between 65 and 75 years without symptomatic heart failure, ischemic heart disease, atrial fibrillation, stroke or cognitive dysfunction.Results: Linear regression analysis showed that office BP was not associated with WMH volume increases. Raised night-time systolic BP (P = 0.013) were associated with greater WMH volumes during ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. To clarify the effect of asleep systolic BP on WML volume, we then classified patients into two systolic BP groups as follows: <125 mmHg (n = 47) and ≥125 mmHg (n = 37). Baseline characteristics were almost similar in both groups, except the dipper type of circadian BP variation was significantly common in the group with night-time systolic BP <125 mmHg. However, WMH volume was greater in the group with night-time systolic BP ≥125 mmHg than that in the <125 mmHg group (9.0 ± 8.4 mL vs 4.1 ± 4.3 mL, P = 0.015). Conclusion:Higher night-time systolic BP levels were observed to contribute greater WMH volumes in elderly hypertensive patients. To prevent the progression of WMH, controlling BP on the basis of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring is important. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2015; 15 (Suppl. 1): 59-65.Keywords: ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, cerebral white matter hyperintensity, circadian blood pressure variation, night-time blood pressure, office blood pressure.

A hard-x-ray telescope is successfully produced for balloon observations by making use of depth-graded multilayers, or so-called supermirrors, with platinum-carbon (Pt/C) layer pairs. It consists of four quadrant units assembled in an optical configuration with a diameter of 40 cm and a focal length of 8 m. Each quadrant is made of 510 pieces of coaxially and confocally aligned supermirrors that significantly enhance the sensitivity in an energy range of 20-40 keV. The configuration of the telescope is similar to the x-ray telescope onboard Astro-E, but with a longer focal length. The reflectivity of supermirrors is of the order of 40% in the energy range concerned at a grazing angle of 0.2 deg. The effective area of a fully assembled telescope is 50 cm2 at 30 keV. The angular resolution is 2.37 arc min at half-power diameter 8.0 keV. The field of view is 12.6 arc min in the hard-x-ray region, depending somewhat on x-ray energies. We discuss these characteristics, taking into account the figure errors of reflectors and their optical alignment in the telescope assembly. This hard-x-ray telescope is unanimously afforded in the International Focusing Optics Collaboration for muCrab Sensitivity balloon experiment.