This study found a similar late-life blood pressure association: subjects with midlife, but not late-life, hypertension (RR 3.25). This association remained significant even after an analysis that controlled for antihypertensive medication at midlife. The use of lipid-lowering drugs reduced the risk of late-life white matter lesions by 87%, the investigators noted.
“These results indicate that early and sustained vascular risk factor control is associated with a lower likelihood of having more severe white matter lesions in late life,” they wrote.