A 74-year-old woman was admitted to our hospital with a history of episodes of left-sided hemiparesis and numbness for few minutes. A brain MRI showed cortical subarachnoid blood and diffuse cortical microbleeds, compatible with a diagnosis of cerebral amyloid angiopathy, according to modified Boston criteria 1. Other possible causes of the MRI findings, such as coagulopathy and traumatic brain injury, were excluded. Cerebral amyloid angiopathy, a common cause of lobar hemorrhage in older patients, can also present with transient focal neurological episodes, which are sometimes known as ' amyloid spells'. These are stereotyped, recurrent, transient episodes of numbness or weakness and may mimic a transient ischemic attack 1,2,3,4,5 .

Background: Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is a cerebrovascular disorder caused by progressive deposition of β-amyloid peptides in the walls of small and medium-sized cortical and leptomeningeal vessels. Until today, the prevalence of CAA is unknown in our region. Objective: This study aims to analyze the prevalence of this entity in a specific elderly population in a tertiary hospital in Northeastern Brazil. Methods: A cross-sectional, retrospective study with the enrollment of patients aged 65 or older followed in the neurological outpatient service of the Universidade Federal do Piauí, Brazil, who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from July 2016 to June 2018. Results: One hundred and seventy-four patients were enrolled, of whom 100 were women (57.4%) and 74, men (42.6%), aged from 65 to 91 years old (median age 73.27). Nine patients were excluded from the study due to unavailability of MRI sequences needed for an appropriate analysis. Out of the 165 remaining patients, 12 (7.2%) had established the diagnosis of CAA, according to the modified Boston criteria. Conclusion: The prevalence of CAA in our study was like those of medical literature, with a progressive age-related increase.