Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2013 Feb 19;80(8):712-8.
doi: 10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182825116. Epub 2013 Jan 30.

Microvascular brain pathology and late-life motor impairment

Aron S Buchman  1 , Lei Yu, Patricia A Boyle, Steven R Levine, Sukriti Nag, Julie A Schneider, David A Bennett
Affiliations

Microvascular brain pathology and late-life motor impairment

Aron S Buchman et al. Neurology. .

Abstract

Objective: To test the hypothesis that microvascular brain pathology is associated with late-life motor impairment.

Methods: More than 2,500 persons participating in the Religious Orders Study or the Memory and Aging Project agreed to annual motor assessment and autopsy. Brains from 850 deceased participants were assessed for microvascular pathology including microinfarcts, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and arteriolosclerosis, and we examined their association with global motor scores proximate to death.

Results: Mean age at death was 88.5 years. More than 60% of cases had evidence of 1 or more microvascular pathologies and of these more than half did not have observed macroinfarcts. In separate regression models adjusted for age, sex, and education, microinfarcts and arteriolosclerosis were associated with level of motor function proximate to death (arteriolosclerosis, estimate, -0.027, SE 0.005, p < 0.001; microinfarcts, estimate, -0.017, SE 0.008, p = 0.026). These associations were not attenuated when controlling for vascular risk factors and diseases, postmortem interval, or interval from last clinical examination, and did not vary with level of cognition or presence of dementia proximate to death. When the 3 microvascular pathologies, macroinfarcts, and atherosclerosis were considered together in a single model, more severe arteriolosclerosis (estimate, -0.021, SE 0.005, p < 0.001) and macroinfarcts (estimate, -0.019, SE 0.006, p < 0.001) showed separate effects with the level of motor function proximate to death.

Conclusions: Microvascular brain pathology is common in older adults and may represent an under-recognized, independent cause of late-life motor impairment.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure
Figure. Microvascular pathology and motor function proximate to death
Box plot scores proximate to death.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Louis ED, Bennett DA. Mild Parkinsonian signs: an overview of an emerging concept. Mov Disord 2007;22:1681–1688 - PubMed
    1. Buchman AS, Leurgans SE, Boyle PA, Schneider JA, Arnold SE, Bennett DA. Combinations of motor measures more strongly predict adverse health outcomes in old age: the rush memory and aging project, a community-based cohort study. BMC Med 2011;9:42. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Khalilzada M, Dogan K, Ince C, Stam J. Sublingual microvascular changes in patients with cerebral small vessel disease. Stroke 2011;42:2071–2073 - PubMed
    1. Ikram MA, Vernooij MW, Hofman A, Niessen WJ, van der Lugt A, Breteler MMB. Kidney function is related to cerebral small vessel disease. Stroke 2008;39:55–61 - PubMed
    1. Kwa VIH, van der Sande JJ, Stam J, Tijmes N, Vrooland JL, Group* ftAVM. Retinal arterial changes correlate with cerebral small-vessel disease. Neurology 2002;59:1536–1540 - PubMed

Publication types