MONDAY, June 22, 2026 (HealthDay News) -- Subtype-specific cardiovascular disease (CVD) associations are seen with Alzheimer disease (AD), with the strongest, most consistent association seen for hypotension, according to a study published online June 10 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.
Aili Toyli, from the Michigan Technological University in Houghton, and colleagues examined the associations between AD and 11 CVD subtypes in two large biobanks: the U.K. Biobank (502,133 participants) and the All of Us Research Program (287,011 participants).
The researchers found that in both cohorts, most CVD subtypes were significantly associated with AD. The strongest and most consistent association was for hypotension, which has been relatively understudied in AD research. Strong associations between AD and hypertension and cerebral infarction were also consistently observed. No significant link was seen between acute myocardial infarction and AD. Shared loci between AD- and CVD-related traits were seen in genetic analyses, especially in regions near APOE, MAPT, and genes influencing myocardial structure and vascular function.
"Compared to hypertension, hypotension receives a lot less attention overall, which likely leads to less data and less research focus," Toyli said in a statement. "Detailed research is needed to understand the biological mechanisms that might be behind the links between [AD] and CVD. Once we determine the specific pathway that connects them, we may be able to intervene and break the chain before [AD] develops."
