Two studies released this week link higher blood pressure in middle-aged people to a greater risk of neurological damage, including dementia.

　　本周公布的两项研究结果表明，中年人血压较高与包括痴呆在内的神经损伤高风险有一定的关联。

　　People with higher blood pressure, including those below guidelines for hypertension, have an increased risk for dementia, according to researchers in Europe. Researchers in Italy were able to show neurological damage due to higher blood pressure in MRI scans, and may be the first to do so.

　　欧洲的研究人员称，血压较高的人(包括低于高血压标准的人)患痴呆的风险会增加。意大利的研究人员在磁共振成像(MRI)扫描中成功证明了血压较高对神经的损伤，这可能尚属首次。

　　Previous research has linked high blood pressure as a chronic condition that causes progressive organ damage. And other studies have found most Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia aren’t linked to genetics, but instead chronic exposure to vascular risk factors.

　　先前的研究已经认定高血压是能导致渐进性器官损伤的慢性疾病。另有研究发现，大多数阿尔茨海默病和相关痴呆与遗传无关，而与长期受血管病风险因素影响有关。

　　But dementia diagnoses usually occur only after symptoms are quite evident -- too late to reverse the neurodegenerative process.

　　但痴呆通常只有在症状相当明显时才能确诊——那时就太晚了，已无法逆转神经退行过程。

　　In an analysis of data from the Whitehall II study, published Tuesday in the European Heart Journal, researchers looked at data from 8,639 civil servants collected in 1985, 1991, 1997 and 2003.

　　在上周二(6月12日)发表在英国《欧洲心脏病学杂志》双月刊上的、来自白厅二号的一篇报告中，研究人员分析了有关方面在1985年、1991年、1997年和2003年收集的8639名公务员的数据。

　　The researchers found that 50-year-olds who had a systolic blood pressure of 130 mmHg or more had a 45 percent greater risk of developing dementia than those with a lower blood pressure at the same age. This is despite no other heart or blood vessel-related problems, they say. The association between high blood pressure and dementia didn’t appear in people between 60 and 70.

　　研究人员发现，50岁的人若收缩压在130毫米汞柱以上，那么患痴呆的风险就会比血压较低的同龄人高45%。他们说，这一点不受其他心脏或血管相关问题的影响。60岁至70岁人群中没有显现出高血压与痴呆之间的关联。

　　"Previous research has not been able to test the link between raised blood pressure and dementia directly by examining the timing in sufficient detail," Dr. Jessica Abell, a post-doctoral research fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris and a research associate in dementia and epidemiology at University College London, said in a press release. "In our paper we were able to examine the association at age 50, 60 and 70, and we found different patterns of association. This will have important implications for policy guidelines, which currently only use the generic term ’midlife.’"

　　巴黎的法国国家健康与医疗研究所博士后研究员、同时也是伦敦大学痴呆和流行病学研究助理的杰西卡?阿贝尔博士在一份报告上表示： “通过观察一定时间内的充足细节，先前的研究无法直接测试出高血压和痴呆之间的联系。在我们的论文中，我们研究了50岁、60岁和70岁人之间的关联，发现了不同的关联模式。这将对目前只使用‘中年’这个通用术语的指导方针产生重要影响。”

　　Lembo led a separate study of MRI scans from people aged 40 to 65 admitted at the Regional Excellence Hypertension Center of the Italian Society of Hypertension. The findings were published Monday in the journal Cardiovascular Research.

　　伦博博士还牵头研究了意大利高血压协会高血压地区研究中心收治的40岁至65岁人群的MRI扫描数据。研究结果载于周一出版的英国《心血管研究》双月刊。

　　Researchers wanted to find any specific signature of brain changes in white matter microstructure of hypertensive patients, which is associated with an impairment of the related cognitive functions.

　　研究人员希望发现高血压患者大脑白质微结构变化的一切具体特征，那些变化与相关认知功能受损有关。

　　They found hypertensive patients showed significant alterations in three specific white matter fiber-tracts. In addition, hypertensive patients also performed significantly worse in cognitive tests, including domains processing speed, memory and related learning tasks.

　　他们发现，高血压患者的三个特定白质纤维束上有显著变化。此外，高血压患者在认知测试中的表现也明显较差，包括域处理速度、记忆和相关学习任务。

　　Overall, MRI’s detected white matter fiber-tracking as an early sign of damage in hypertensive patients when otherwise undetectable by conventional neuroimaging.

　　总的来说，MRI检测到的白质纤维束痕迹是高血压患者神经损伤的早期迹象，那是常规神经成像技术无法检测到的。