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
Review
. 2018 Sep;17(3):73-82.
doi: 10.12779/dnd.2018.17.3.73. Epub 2018 Dec 6.

Characteristics of Cerebral Microbleeds

Affiliations
Review

Characteristics of Cerebral Microbleeds

Juyoun Lee et al. Dement Neurocogn Disord. 2018 Sep.

Abstract

Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are increasingly recognized neuroimaging findings, occurring with cerebrovascular disease, dementia, and aging. CMBs are associated with subsequent hemorrhagic and ischemic stroke, and also with an increased risk of cognitive deterioration and dementia. They occur in the setting of impaired small vessel integrity due to hypertension or cerebral amyloid angiopathy. This review summarizes the concepts, cause or risk factors, histopathological mechanisms, and clinical consequences of CMBs.

Keywords: Cerebral Microbleeds; Dementia; Stroke.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: The authors have no financial conflicts of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. CMBs on gradient-recalled echo imaging in brain magnetic resonance imaging. (A) Multiple CMBs in the parietal lobe (B) multiple deep CMBs in bilateral basal ganglia and thalamus.
CMB: cerebral microbleed.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2. Visual rating of cerebral microbleeds. (A) The Microbleed Anatomical Rating Scale, (B) The Brain Observer MicroBleed Scale.
B: brain stem, Bg: basal ganglia, C: cerebellum, Cc:corpus callosum, DPWM: deep periventricular white matter, Ec: external capsule, F: frontal lobe, I: insula, Ic: internal capsule, O: occipital lobe, P: parietal lobe, T: temporal lobe, Th: thalamus.

References

    1. Roob G, Schmidt R, Kapeller P, Lechner A, Hartung HP, Fazekas F. MRI evidence of past cerebral microbleeds in a healthy elderly population. Neurology. 1999;52:991–994. - PubMed
    1. Greenberg SM, Vernooij MW, Cordonnier C, Viswanathan A, Al-Shahi Salman R, Warach S, et al. Cerebral microbleeds: a guide to detection and interpretation. Lancet Neurol. 2009;8:165–174. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Poels MM, Ikram MA, van der Lugt A, Hofman A, Krestin GP, Breteler MM, et al. Incidence of cerebral microbleeds in the general population: the Rotterdam Scan Study. Stroke. 2011;42:656–661. - PubMed
    1. Sveinbjornsdottir S, Sigurdsson S, Aspelund T, Kjartansson O, Eiriksdottir G, Valtysdottir B, et al. Cerebral microbleeds in the population based AGES-Reykjavik study: prevalence and location. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry. 2008;79:1002–1006. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Vernooij MW, van der Lugt A, Ikram MA, Wielopolski PA, Niessen WJ, Hofman A, et al. Prevalence and risk factors of cerebral microbleeds: the Rotterdam Scan Study. Neurology. 2008;70:1208–1214. - PubMed