Our hypothesis was that progressive subcortical vascular encephalopathy of Binswanger's type (PSVE) in the elderly can be induced by repeated hypotension or greater variability of blood pressure in hypertensives, regardless of antihypertensive therapy. We retrospectively studied PSVE blood pressure, and compared them with those in atherothrombotic cerebral infarction (ACI) or in hypertensive cerebral hemorrhage (HCH). During the last seven years prior to death, neither the annual variability nor the annual mean value of systolic or mean arterial blood pressures in PSVE was different from that in ACI or in HCH. The present study did not support our hypothesis.
