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Cerebrovascular disease

Lobar cerebral microbleeds signal early cognitive impairment

Nature Reviews Neurology volume 12, pages 680–682 (2016)Cite this article

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A cross-sectional community-based study shows that strictly lobar cerebral microbleeds are associated with cognitive impairment, and might be a surrogate marker for early small-vessel injury. The anatomical distribution of cerebral microbleeds suggests that cerebral amyloid angiopathy (with or without Alzheimer disease) might have a key role in early cognitive impairment.

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Figure 1: Anatomical location of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) in cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and arteriolosclerosis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge funding support for work described in this article from a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C), JSPS KAKENHI (Grant Number 15k10364), and at UCLH/UCL, who received a proportion of funding from the Department of Health's NIHR Biomedical Research Centres funding scheme.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Yusuke Yakushiji is at the Division of Neurology, Department of Internal Medicine, Saga University Faculty of Medicine, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga, 849–8501, Japan.,

    Yusuke Yakushiji

  2. Department of Brain Repair & Rehabilitation, David J. Werring is at the Stroke Research Centre, UCL Institute of Neurology and The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London WC1N 3BG, UK.,

    David J. Werring

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  1. Yusuke Yakushiji
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  2. David J. Werring
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Correspondence to Yusuke Yakushiji.

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Competing interests

Y.Y has received research support from Novartis Pharma. D.J.W. declares honoraria from Bayer, and was UK chief investigator for a randomized controlled trial of ponezumab in cerebral amyloid angiopathy, sponsored by Pfizer.

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Yakushiji, Y., Werring, D. Lobar cerebral microbleeds signal early cognitive impairment. Nat Rev Neurol 12, 680–682 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2016.179

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