Review of cerebral microangiopathy and Alzheimer's disease: relation between white matter hyperintensities and microbleeds

Abstract

Although Alzheimer's disease (AD) is basically considered to be a neurodegenerative disorder, cerebrovascular disease is also involved. The role of vascular risk factors and vascular disease in the progression of AD remains incompletely understood. With the development of brain MRI, it is now possible to detect small-vessel disease, whose prevalence and severity increase with age. The first types of small-vessel disease to be described were white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). More recently, small areas of signal loss on T(2)*-weighted images, also called microbleeds (MBs), have been reported. Cerebral MBs are focal deposits of hemosiderin that indicate prior microhemorrhages around small vessels, related to either ruptured atherosclerotic microvessels or amyloid angiopathy. Consequently, using brain MRI for the detection of microangiopathy may prove useful to improve our understanding of the impact of the vascular burden in AD pathology. The relationship between microangiopathy and the clinical course of AD or the conversion of mild cognitive impairment to AD remains questionable in terms of cognitive or affective symptoms, particularly if we consider MBs.