An autopsy case of amyloid β-related angiitis with cognitive impairment, multiple infarcts and subcortical hemorrhage

Abstract

A 76-year-old female presented with cognitive impairment and multiple brain infarcts and died of massive subcortical cerebral hemorrhage. A premortem clinical diagnosis was not possible. She did not show apparent microbleeds on brain images during her lifetime. An autopsy revealed vasculitis at various stages with amyloid β deposition and granulomatous reaction in cortical and leptomeningeal arteries, although almost vasculitic processes were in the healing stage, suggestive of the inactive stage of the disease process. Affected vessels were strictly limited to the brain. The final pathological diagnosis of the autopsy was amyloid β-related angiitis. Genotype analyses of ApoE revealed ApoE ε3/ε3 genotype, low risk for Alzheimer's disease. On retrospective examination, the titer of anti-amyloid β autoantibody in cerebrospinal fluid was rather high in our case, but the exact clinical significance remains unknown. Since microbleeds on brain images are diagnostic findings in patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy-associated conditions, it is very difficult to make an accurate diagnosis of amyloid β-related angiitis without typical microbleeds or open brain biopsy like our case.