New Window of Opportunity to Prevent Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Diseases Identified

According to a study conducted by a team of cardiologists, neuroscientists and psychiatrists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, future prevention and treatment strategies for vascular diseases may lie in the evaluation of early brain imaging tests long before heart attacks or strokes occur. During the study, Mount Sinai researchers examined all relevant brain imaging studies conducted over the last 33 years. They looked at studies that used every available brain imaging modality in patients with vascular disease risk factors, but no symptoms that would lead to a diagnosis of diseased blood vessels in the heart, brain or periphery. The results of the study showed that patients with high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, smoking or metabolic syndrome (but had no symptoms) still had visible signs on their neuroimaging scans of structural and functional brain changes long before the development of any events related to vascular diseases of the heart or brain. To read more about this study, click here.