Central Nervous System Vasculopathies

Abstract

Various imaging techniques play a role in the diagnosis of CNS vasculopathies, which comprise a heterogeneous group of disorders, including various noninflammatory and inflammatory etiologies. Noninflammatory vasculopathies include entities such as CADASIL, Susac, moyamoya, fibromuscular dysplasia, vasculopathy of connective tissue disorders, and reversible vasoconstriction syndrome. Inflammatory vasculopathies include vasculitides of different vessel sizes, primary angiitis of the CNS, vasculitis of systemic disease, and vasculitis secondary to specific causes. Miscellaneous etiology includes cerebral amyloid angiopathy, which has noninflammatory and inflammatory subtypes. This article discusses important clinical and imaging findings used to distinguish these disorders.

Keywords: Brain imaging; Central nervous system; Vasculitis; Vasculopathy.