Vascular diseases of the brain are an important medical and social problem that negatively affects the economy of the country and the life of society as a whole. Discirculatory encephalopathy refers to slowly progressing disorders of the cerebral circulation, in which development of an essential role is played by hypertension, atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus and other diseases that affect the vessels of the brain. The purpose of the study was to identify a specific pattern of iron accumulation in the subcortical structures of the brain of hypertensive and atherosclerotic encephalopathy patients to improve the diagnostic criteria for the development of cognitive impairment. For the study, 20 patients in the main group with a diagnosis of hypertensive and atherosclerotic encephalopathy were selected, and the control group consisted of 20 patients, the results of which neuropsychiatric tests were within the normal range. According to the results of the study, the accumulation of iron in the basal ganglia is higher in patients with the main group compared with the control group. The exact mechanism for increasing the concentration of iron in the basal ganglia of the patients in the main group is not known, but this study confirms that deposition of subcutaneous iron may be used as a biomarker for early diagnosis of vascular dementia that develops against the background of hypertensive and atherosclerotic encephalopathy. The results of the study reliably established the existence of a negative correlation between hypointensity of subcortical nuclei and neuropsychological parameters in patients with the main group.