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Updated: Nov 20, 2025

Longitudinal In Vivo Imaging of the Cerebrovasculature: Relevance to CNS Diseases
Published on: December 6, 2016
Longitudinal Accumulation of Cerebral Microhemorrhages in Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Disease
Nelly Joseph-Mathurin1, Guoqiao Wang1, Kejal Kantarci1
1From the Departments of Radiology (N.J.-M., T.M.B., B.A.G., G.C., P.M., R.C.H., T.L.S.B.), Neurology (E.M., J.H., B.M.A., R.J.P., J.C.M., R.J.B.), Psychological and Brain Sciences (J.H.), Psychiatry (C.C., C.M.K.), and Pathology and Immunology (R.J.P.) and Division of Biostatistics (G.W., C.X.), Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO; Banner Alzheimers Institute (Y.S.), Phoenix, AZ; Department of Cognitive Neurology and Neuropsychology (R.F.A.), Instituto de Investigaciones Neurológicas Fleni, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Departments of Neurology and Clinical and Translational Science (S.B.B.), University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, PA; Department of Neurology (A.M.B.), Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimers Disease and the Aging Brain, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY; Neuroscience Research Australia (W.S.B., P.R.S.); School of Medical Sciences (P.R.S.), University of New South Wales (W.S.B.), Sydney, Australia; Dementia Research Centre and UK Dementia Research Institute (D.M.C., N.C.F., A.O.), UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, London, UK; Departments of Neurology (J.P.C., K.A.J.) and Radiology (K.A.J.), Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston; Department of Neurology (H.C.C., J.M.R.), Keck School of Medicine of USC, Los Angeles, CA; Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (S.C., A.K.W.L., S.S.), Memory and Aging Program, Butler Hospital, Brown University Alpert Medical School, Providence, RI; Center for Neuroimaging, Department of Radiology and Imaging Science (M.R.F., A.J.S.), Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (B.G.), and Indiana Alzheimers Disease Research Center (A.J.S.), Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis; Departments of Molecular Imaging and Neurology (M.F.), Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, University of Sydney, Australia; Department of Neurology (N.R.G.-R.), Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL; German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) (C.L., J.L., I.Y.); Section for Dementia Research, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (C.L.), University of Tübingen; Department of Neurology (J.L., I.Y.), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (SyNergy) (J.L., I.Y.), Germany; Florey Institute and The University of Melbourne (C.L.M.), Australia; Department of Neurology (J.M.N.), Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY; Department of Radiology (K.K., C.R.J., G.M.P.), Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN; Department of Molecular Imaging and Therapy (C.C.R., V.L.V.), Austin Health, University of Melbourne, Heidelberg, Australia; Clinical Research Center for Dementia (H.S.), Osaka City University; Department of Neurology (M.S.), Hirosaki University Graduate School of Medicine; and Department of Neurology (K.S.), The University of Tokyo, Japan.
Objective:
To investigate the inherent clinical risks associated with the presence of cerebral microhemorrhages (CMHs) or cerebral microbleeds and characterize individuals at high risk for developing hemorrhagic amyloid-related imaging abnormality (ARIA-H), we longitudinally evaluated families with dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease (DIAD).
Methods:
Mutation carriers (n = 310) and noncarriers (n = 201) underwent neuroimaging, including gradient echo MRI sequences to detect CMHs, and neuropsychological and clinical assessments. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses evaluated relationships between CMHs and neuroimaging and clinical markers of disease.
Results:
Three percent of noncarriers and 8% of carriers developed CMHs primarily located in lobar areas. Carriers with CMHs were older, had higher diastolic blood pressure and Hachinski ischemic scores, and more clinical, cognitive, and motor impairments than those without CMHs. APOE ε4 status was not associated with the prevalence or incidence of CMHs. Prevalent or incident CMHs predicted faster change in Clinical Dementia Rating although not composite cognitive measure, cortical thickness, hippocampal volume, or white matter lesions. Critically, the presence of 2 or more CMHs was associated with a significant risk for development of additional CMHs over time (8.95 ± 10.04 per year).
Conclusion:
Our study highlights factors associated with the development of CMHs in individuals with DIAD. CMHs are a part of the underlying disease process in DIAD and are significantly associated with dementia. This highlights that in participants in treatment trials exposed to drugs, which carry the risk of ARIA-H as a complication, it may be challenging to separate natural incidence of CMHs from drug-related CMHs.

