Open AccessCerebral Microinfarcts Associated with Severe Cerebral β‐Amyloid Angiopathy
Author(s) -
Soontornniyomkij Virawudh,
Lynch Matthew D.,
Mermash Sherin,
Pomakian Justine,
Badkoobehi Haleh,
Clare Ryan,
Vinters Harry V.
Publication year - 2010
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/j.1750-3639.2009.00322.x
Subject(s) - cerebral amyloid angiopathy , pathology , cd68 , medicine , cognitive impairment , immunohistochemistry , angiopathy , disease , dementia , endocrinology , diabetes mellitus
Cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) is common in elderly individuals, especially those affected with Alzheimer's disease. Eighteen brains with severe SCAA (SCAA) were compared with 21 brains with mild CAA (MCAA) to investigate whether the presence of SCAA in the brains of demented patients was associated with a higher burden of old microinfarcts than those with MCAA. Immunohistochemistry for CD68 was employed to highlight old microinfarcts in tissue blocks from various brain regions. Old microinfarcts, manually counted by light microscopy, were present in 14 of 18 SCAA brains and in 7 of 21 MCAA brains ( P = 0.01, two‐tailed Fisher's exact test). The average number of old microinfarcts across geographic regions in each brain ranged from 0 to 1.95 (mean rank 24.94, sum of ranks 449) in the SCAA group, and from 0 to 0.35 (mean rank 15.76, sum of ranks 331) in the MCAA group ( P = 0.008, two‐tailed Mann–Whitney U‐test). Frequent old microinfarcts in demented individuals with severe CAA may contribute a vascular component to the cognitive impairment in these patients.