Brislane, Á, Low, DA, Carter, SE, Holder, SM, Jones, H and Hopkins, ND (2019) Cerebral and peripheral vascular differences between pre- and post-menopausal women. Menopause: The Journal of the North American Menopause Society. ISSN 1072-3714

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Abstract

Objective: Menopause is associated with lower peripheral vascular function however cerebrovascular responses to this time-period are unclear. We aimed to describe peripheral vascular and cerebrovascular differences between pre- and post-menopausal women.
Methods: Fifty pre- and post-menopausal women (N=100) underwent assessments of cerebral blood flow, cerebrovascular reactivity and autoregulation, carotid artery reactivity, brachial and femoral artery flow-mediated dilation and carotid, brachial and femoral artery intima-media thickness. Comparisons were made between pre- and post-menopausal women followed by a secondary-analysis (N=20) between late-pre-menopausal women and those within five years of menopause using a general linear model.
Results: Cerebral blood flow (-11 [-17, -4 cm/s]; p=0.03) and carotid reactivity (-2.3 [-4.3, - 0.3%] p=0.03) were lower post-menopause compared to pre-menopause while cerebrovascular reactivity and autoregulation did not differ (p>0.05). Post-menopausal women had a larger carotid (0.16 [0.13, 0.20 mm] p<0.001), brachial (0.07 [0.03, 0.11mm] p=0.004) and femoral artery intima-media-thickness (0.09 [0.05, 0.14 mm] p=0.04), alongside lower brachial (-2.3 [-3.9, -0.7%] p=0.004) and femoral artery flow-mediated dilation (-3.0 [-4.3, - 1.8 %] p<0.001). In the secondary-analysis, early-post-menopausal women had a lower femoral artery flow-mediated dilation (-1.9 [-3.9, -0.0 %] p=0.05) and larger carotid intimamedia-thickness (0.07 [0.00, 0.14 mm] p=0.03) compared to late-pre-menopausal women.
Conclusions: Cerebral blood flow, carotid artery reactivity, peripheral vascular function and structure are negatively affected by age. Preliminary data indicates that femoral artery function and carotid artery structure may be potentially impaired in early-post-menopause compared with late-pre-menopause. These findings suggest that conduit arteries susceptible to atherosclerosis may be important targets for lifestyle intervention in early menopause.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	11 Medical and Health Sciences
Subjects:	R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC1200 Sports Medicine
Divisions:	Sport & Exercise Sciences
Publisher:	Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
Date Deposited:	03 Sep 2019 11:19
Last Modified:	04 Sep 2021 08:56
DOI or ID number:	10.1097/GME.0000000000001442
URI:	https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/11267

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