Microbleeds colocalize with enlarged juxtacortical perivascular spaces in amnestic mild cognitive impairment and early Alzheimer's disease: A 7 Tesla MRI study. Issue 4 (April 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bouvy, Willem H; van Veluw, Susanne J; Kuijf, Hugo J; Zwanenburg, Jaco JM; Kappelle, Jaap L; Luijten, Peter R; Koek, Huiberdina L; Geerlings, Mirjam I; Biessels, Geert J
• Is Part Of: Journal of cerebral blood flow & metabolism. Volume 40:Issue 4(2020)
• Page Start: 739
• Page End: 746
• Publication Date: 2020-04
• Subjects: Alzheimer's disease -- cerebral amyloid angiopathy -- microbleeds -- perivascular spaces -- small vessel disease; Cerebral circulation -- Periodicals; Brain -- Metabolism -- Periodicals; Brain -- Blood-vessels -- Periodicals; Cerebrovascular disease -- Periodicals; 612.824
• DOI: 10.1177/0271678X19838087
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0271-678X

Abstract

MRI-visible perivascular spaces (PVS) in the semioval centre are associated with cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), but it is unknown if PVS co-localize with MRI markers of CAA. To examine this, we assessed the topographical association between cortical cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) – as an indirect marker of CAA – and dilatation of juxtacortical perivascular spaces (jPVS) in 46 patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) or early Alzheimer's disease (eAD). The degree of dilatation of jPVS <1 cm around each cortical CMBs was compared with a similar reference site (no CMB) in the contralateral hemisphere, using a 4-point scale. Also, jPVS dilatation was compared between patients with and without cortical CMBs. Eleven patients (24%) had cortical CMBs [total=35, median=1, range=1–14] of whom five had >1 cortical CMBs. The degree of jPVS dilatation was higher around CMBs than at the reference sites [Wilcoxon signed rank test, Z = 2.2, p = 0.03]. Patients with >1 cortical CMBs had a higher degree of jPVS dilation [median=2.2, IQR = 1.8–2.3] than patients without cortical CMBs [median=1.4, IQR = 1.0–1.8], p = 0.02. We found a topographical association between a high degree of jPVS dilatation and cortical CMBs, supporting a common underlying pathophysiology – most likely CAA.