Cerebral Small Vessel Disease in Dementia and Depression: a prospective population-based MRI study

Abstract

__Abstract__ Cerebral white matter lesions and asymptomatic brain infarcts are common in elderly people. These brain lesions are thought to result from cerebral small vessel disease, and their presence and severity increase with age and the presence of arterial hypertension. There is widespread belief that cerebral small vessel disease plays a role in the aetiology of dementia. Small vessel disease is commonly regarded as the primary pathology in subcortical ischemic vascular dementia, one of the subtypes of vascular dementia. Furthermore, vascular factors, including cerebral small vessel disease, are increasingly recognized to be involved in the aetiology of Alzheimer’s disease.8 However, there is hardly any evidence from prospective population-based studies to support these notions