Association Found 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 School of Medicine and School of Public Health 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 Heart Rhythm, 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,” said corresponding author Rhoda Au, professor of epidemiology and neurology at SPH and MED and director of neuropsychology for the Framingham Heart Study.
Au said 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 Departments of Neurology and Medicine at MED; the SPH Department of Biostatistics; the Framingham Heart Study; the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco; and the Department of Neurology, University of California.
Funding for the study came from the National Institute on Aging and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.