Open AccessCerebral Amyloid Angiopathy, Subcortical White Matter Disease and Dementia: Literature Review and Study in OPTIMA
Author(s) -
Esiri Margaret,
Chance Steven,
Joachim Catharine,
Warden Donald,
Smallwood Aidan,
Sloan Carolyn,
Christie Sharon,
Wilcock Gordon,
Smith A. David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
brain pathology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.986
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1750-3639
pISSN - 1015-6305
DOI - 10.1111/bpa.12221
Subject(s) - cerebral amyloid angiopathy , dementia , apolipoprotein e , disease , intracerebral hemorrhage , neuroimaging , white matter , psychology , neuroscience , medicine , amyloid (mycology) , pathology , magnetic resonance imaging , subarachnoid hemorrhage , radiology
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy ( CAA ) is of increasing clinical and research interest as the ability to detect it and its consequences by neuroimaging in living subjects has advanced. There is also increasing interest in understanding its possible role in the development of intracerebral hemorrhage, A lzheimer's disease ( AD ) and vascular dementia. In this article, the literature on this subject is reviewed and novel findings relating CAA to subcortical white matter damage in 224 subjects in the O xford project to I nvestigate M emory and A geing ( OPTIMA ) are reported. The relationship between CAA and subcortical tissue damage in the OPTIMA subjects was found to be critically dependent on ApoE genotype, there being a positive relationship between measures of CAA and subcortical small vessel disease in ApoE ε4 carriers and a significant negative relationship in ApoE ε2 carriers. These findings draw attention, as have many other studies, to the importance of ApoE genotype as a major risk factor not only for dementia but also for damage to blood vessels in the aging brain.