Background The prevalence of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is rapidly in China, which puts a great deal of pressure on the patient’s family and society. The way of patient care deserves social attention. This study focused on the caregiving status and the relationship between caregivers’ burden and patient factors based on the Chinese pension system. Methods This is a large-scale, multicenter cross-sectional study aimed to investigate the two types of caregiving (family care and nursing care), and the caregiver burden of patients with AD. A total of 1675 patients with a definite diagnosis of probable AD from 30 provincial, municipal, and autonomous regions of mainland China were enrolled from August 2019 to December 2019. Caregivers of AD patients completed the questionnaire under the guidance of trained investigators. The characteristics of patients and caregivers were summarized by descriptive statistics. Results Among the 1675 AD patients, 1522 (90.87%) patients adopted family care. There was a significant correlation between the housing condition, annual income, self-care ability, and the choice of caregiving (P < 0.05). According to the caregiver burden inventory score, 28.90% of the caregivers had a low burden, 57.01% had a medium burden and 14.09% had a heavy burden, concerning the patient's age, caring style, self-care ability, etc. The burden of the caregivers in the nursing facilities is relatively high than that of family care (P < 0.05). Conclusion Family care is the main way of care for AD patients in China. Caregiving status is affected by living place, patient income and severity of the disease. The burden of family caregivers of AD is generally high, especially patients with disabilities.

Rationale: Cerebral large artery occlusion in chronic central nervous system graft-versus-host disease after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) was very scarce. We described a young patient with bilateral white matter lesions and symptomatic internal carotid artery occlusion after allo-HSCT with the history of aplastic anemia. Patient concerns: A 17-year-old girl with the history of aplastic anemia developed recurrent headache and sudden hemiplegia of right limbs 2 years after allo-HSCT. Diagnoses: She was diagnosed with skin chronic graft-versus-host disease 19 months after allo-HSCT. Brain magnetic resonance imaging showed bilateral subcortical white matter abnormal signals and hyperintensity of left fronto-parietal lobe on diffusion weighted imaging and corresponding hypointense apparent diffusion coefficients indicating acute infarction. CT angiography revealed thrombosis in left internal carotid artery. Carotid plaque high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging showed annular enhancement of vascular wall revealing signs of vasculitis. Interventions: Intravenous immunoglobulin, methylprednisolone, and anticoagulant therapy were used to treat the patient. Outcomes: The patient's symptoms gradually resolved and she could walk with assistance after 3 weeks before returned home. Lessons: Chronic graft-versus-host disease-associated vasculitis could involve cerebral large vessels which warrants further study.