Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain?
Researchers find association between atrial fibrillation and reduced brain volume
People who experience atrial fibrillation (AF), a heart arrhythmia, may also have a smaller brain—specifically, reduced frontal lobe volume—according to Framingham Heart Study research led by Boston University School of Medicine (MED) and School of Public Health (SPH) faculty.
AF is a serious cardiovascular condition that is associated with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and death, as well as cognitive decline and increased risk of dementia. But little is known about the impact of AF on brain structure in people whose cognition is intact.
The new study, which appears in the journal HeartRhythm, looks at the relationship between AF and brain volume, as measured by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The researchers examined total cerebral volume, frontal lobe volume, temporal lobe volume, hippocampal volume, and white matter hyper-intensity volume in patients without prior stroke or dementia.
Their results showed that AF was associated with smaller frontal lobe volumes, even after adjusting for age, gender, vascular risk factors, and APOE4 (a gene independently linked to smaller brain volumes).
“We believe that good heart health also contributes to good brain health, and given that the incidence of AF is expected to more than double in the next three decades, we are interested in understanding the association between AF and brain anatomy,” says corresponding author Rhoda Au, a professor of epidemiology and neurology at SPH and MED and director of neuropsychology for the Framingham Heart Study.
Au says further research will focus on determining whether these brain-structure findings translate into an impact on cognitive skills, such as problem solving, memory, and language.
Researchers on the study are from the MED departments of neurology and medicine, the SPH biostatistics department, the Framingham Heart Study, the University of California at San Francisco department of medicine, and the department of neurology at the University of California.
Funding for the study came from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.
Comments & Discussion
Boston University moderates comments to facilitate an informed, substantive, civil conversation. Abusive, profane, self-promotional, misleading, incoherent or off-topic comments will be rejected. Moderators are staffed during regular business hours (EST) and can only accept comments written in English. Statistics or facts must include a citation or a link to the citation.