Neuroimaging of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Age-Related Cognitive Changes

Abstract

Subclinical cerebrovascular disease is frequently identified in neuroimaging studies and is thought to play a role in the pathogenesis of cognitive disorders. Identifying the etiologies of different types of lesions may help investigators differentiate between age-related and pathological cerebrovascular damage in cognitive aging. In this review article, we aim to describe the epidemiology and etiology of various brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measures of vascular damage in cognitively normal, older adult populations. We focus here on population-based prospective cohort studies of cognitively unimpaired older adults, as well as discuss the heterogeneity of MRI findings and their relationships with cognition. This review article emphasizes the need for a better understanding of subclinical cerebrovascular disease in cognitively normal populations, in order to more effectively identify and prevent cognitive decline in our rapidly aging population.

Silent cerebrovascular disease in hypertensive adults is frequent and age-dependent

“…CSVD is very common in elderly patients [16], however, in our study we found a high frequency of these lesions in a group of hypertensive patients with a mean age below 65 years, most of them with low to moderate CVR. Few studies have reported these injuries in non-elderly individuals [-2017], in which WML is the most common injury, as in our study.…”

Neuroprotective Potentials of Natural Vitamin E for Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

“…Different manifestations of CSVD based on neuroimaging findings result in different and overlapping health burden and epidemiology [54]. Increasing age has been reported to elevate the finding of WMHs, lacunes, perivascular spaces, and CMBs in healthy populations [54][55][56]. However, increased vascular risk factors are consistent with the prevalence of CMBs but not in other imaging findings [56,57].…”

“…The effects of several manifestations of CSVD on cognition seem to be invariably influenced by the location of the lesion(s). The damaged and reduced white matter integrity in the frontal lobe and its dysfunction are associated with reduced transmission of information to other parts of the brain in the presence of WMHs [54], lacunes (deep nuclear [78.2%], posterior fossa [10.1%]) [66], and perivascular spaces [65,67]. In contrast, temporal lobe lesion is more associated with the findings of lobar and deep CMBs [68,69].…”

“…Furthermore, reduced cognitive ability has been reported in elderly and nondemented people with the presence of lacunes of presumed vascular origin [54,72,74]. Memory declines have also been associated with thalamic infarcts, whereas decreased psychomotor speed is associated with non-thalamic infarcts [75].…”

The etiology, manifestations, and therapy of chronic cerebrovascular diseases

“…Лейкоареоз (изменения белого вещества, сосудистая лейкоэнцефалопатия) представляет собой зоны увеличенного сигнала от белого вещества мозга в Т2и FLAIR-режимах, чаще локализующиеся перивентрикулярно или в глубинных отделах лобных долей. Б М С и К Н В большинстве исследований показано, что БМС обычно сопряжена с КН, не достигающими выраженности деменции [33][34][35][36][37]. Вероятно, КН являются наиболее ранним следствием БМС.…”