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Review
. 2020 Aug 25:11:927.
doi: 10.3389/fneur.2020.00927. eCollection 2020.

Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

Hae Won Kim  1 , Jeongho Hong  2 , Jae Cheon Jeon  3
Affiliations
Review

Cerebral Small Vessel Disease and Alzheimer's Disease: A Review

Hae Won Kim et al. Front Neurol. .

Abstract

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Despite this, clear pathophysiology for AD has not been confirmed, and effective treatments are still not available. As AD results in a complex disease process for cognitive decline, various theories have been suggested as the cause of AD. Recently, cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) has been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of AD, as well as contributing to vascular dementia. Cerebral SVD refers to a varied group of diseases that affect cerebral small arteries and microvessels. These can be seen as white matter hyperintensities, cerebral microbleeds, and lacunes on magnetic resonance imaging. Data from epidemiological and clinical-pathological studies have found evidence of the relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. This review aims to discuss the complex relationship between cerebral SVD and AD. Recent reports that evaluate the association between these diseases will be reviewed.

Keywords: Alzheimer's disease; PET; cerebral small vessel disease; dementia; white matter hyperintensity.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flow diagram showing the inclusion and exclusion of relevant studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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