"Silent cerebrovascular lesions" occur among elderly "normal" volunteers besides patients with previous symptomatic strokes

Abstract

"Silent cerebral infarctions" are a common finding on neuroimaging of neurologically normal elderly patients without any history of stroke. The precise incidence is unknown but increases with advancing age and associated risk factors for stroke and arteriosclerosis. Among a group of 86 neurologically and cognitively "normal" volunteers without a history of stroke, 9 were found to have "silent cerebrovascular lesions" on computed tomography. Thus, there was a 10.5% incidence in the group of 86 "normal" volunteers. It was also found that additional "silent strokes" occurred among 38 patients with a documented history of prior stroke at a rate of 3.4% per year.