Cerebral small vessel disease-revisited

Masafumi Ihara

Department of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center

Dementia is set to become one of the most important health problems worldwide. In recent years, cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) has received growing attention as an important cause of dementia. SVD is known to induce a variety of pathological changes;for example, arteriosclerosis (type 1 SVD) results in lacunar infarction, deep microbleeds, and white matter damage, while cerebral amyloid angiopathy (type 2 SVD) leads to cortical microinfarcts, lobar microbleeds, and white matter damage. SVD is considered a spectrum of abnormalities, with the majority of patients experiencing symptoms from both type 1 and type 2 SVD as the disease progresses.

Key words:Small vessel disease, arteriosclerosis, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, amyloid β, Alzheimer’s disease

Address correspondence to Dr. Masafumi Ihara, Department of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center (5-7-1 Fujishiro-dai, Suita, Osaka 565-8565, Japan)