Correlation between cerebral microbleeds and hypertension and other risk factors

Objective: In order to investigate the influence of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) on hypertension, and study association between CMBs grading severity and classification of hypertension. Methods: We performed a hospital-based survey of patients with hypertension undergoing gradient-echo T2-weighted imaging. One hundred and twenty consecutive inpatients were recruited from March 2009 to February 2011 by our hospital. We detected the CMBs lesion number, location and clinical parameters. Multivariate logistic regression was used to find the independent risk factors for CMBs. Spearman's rank correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between the severity of CMBs and hypertension grade-level. Results: CMBs lesionswerepresented in41of the120patients (34.17%). Themajorityof patients with CMBs exhibited multiple lesions, which were noted simultaneously in various parts of the brain, the numberof CMBs ranged from 1 to 31, The distribution of CMBs was 46.18% in cortex–subcortex, 33.09%basal ganglia regions,12% thalamic, 6.55%brainstem,and2.18% in cerebellum. Age, smoking, systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure were significantly associated with the presence of CMBs [P=0.044, OR=1.056, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.001–1.113; P=0.020, OR=3.121, 95%CI 1.195–8.152; P=0.006, OR=1.040, 95%CI 1.011–1.070; P=0.034, OR=1.055, 95%CI 1.004–1.108, respectively]. There were no significant relationships demonstrated between CMBs and blood lipids, diabetes mellitus, serum urate, hs-CRP, sex and drinking (PN0.05). There was a statistically significant correlation between the severity of CMBs and hypertension grade-level (r=0.551, Pb0.01). Conclusions: CMBs occur frequently in patients with hypertension. As can be seen, there is a regional distribution and there is also some tendency toward a higher frequency of CMBs in cortex–subcortex and basal ganglia region, but less commonly in brainstem and cerebellum in patients with hypertension. Age, hypertension, and smoking were significantly associated with the presence of CMBs. The severity of CMBs correlates with the severity of hypertension.