Cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment

Abstract

Cerebral small vessel disease is the common clinical, imaging and pathological syndrome that contribute to the onset and progression of cognitive impairment, and it also plays a crucial role on stroke, dementia, brain aging, and neurodegenerative disease. Cerebral small vessel disease can be detected and diagnosed using structural brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The main imaging features of various cerebral small vessel disease include small subcortical infarcts, lacunes of presumed vascular origin, white matter hyperintensities, enlarged perivascular spaces, cerebral microbleeds, and global and regional brain atrophy. Other emerging imaging features are detectable at very high field strength MRI include microinfarcts. Cerebral small vessel disease used to be considered clinically silent. However, in the past decades or so, numerous studies have investigated the association between various imaging markers of cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive dysfunction (e.g.vascular cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease). The results have shown that these neuroimaging markers are associated with cognitive dysfunction, and can be used to predict the risk of dementia and the progression of cognitive impairment. This review article seeks to summarize neuroimaging studies that examine the associations between various markers of cerebral small vessel disease and cognitive impairment. Key words: Cerebral small vessel disease; Cognitive impairment; Alzheimer’s disease; Magnetic resonance imaging