Binswanger's disease: a cause of dementia in the elderly

Evaluation of dementia has expanded as our attention to the aged and their maladies has increased. Alzheimer's disease continues to occupy the number one position as a cause of dementia, but vascular dementia also assumes great importance as one of the preventable causes of mental deterioration. Binswanger's disease, a type of vascular or multi-infarct dementia, will be seen more as our diagnostic technologies improve. An appropriate clinical picture combined with normal laboratory values and a CT brain scan with white matter lucencies and frequent basal ganglia infarcts confirm the diagnosis of Binswanger's. Treatment is symptomatic, with prevention of further infarcts.