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Updated: May 5, 2026
Assessing Cortical Cerebral Microinfarcts on High Resolution MR Images
Published on: November 20, 2015
[Cerebral microangiopathy]
L A Dobrynina1, E I Kremneva1, A A Heints1
1Research Centre of Neurology, Moscow, Russia.
Insights
Age-dependent cerebral microangiopathy, or cerebral small vessel disease, significantly impacts elderly health. Research highlights neuroimaging advances and the need for new risk factors and treatments for this complex neurological condition.
Area of Science:
- Neurology
- Neuroimaging
- Vascular Biology
Background:
- Age-dependent cerebral microangiopathy (cerebral small vessel disease) is a major cause of disability and mortality in the elderly.
- It contributes to strokes, cognitive decline, gait disturbances, and neurodegeneration.
- Current understanding and management strategies are limited by the disease's complexity.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review advancements in neuroimaging for diagnosing cerebral microangiopathy.
- To explore the potential of lifelong MRI for assessing brain microstructure and damage.
- To discuss disease pathomorphosis, novel risk factors, experimental models, and pathogenetic treatment strategies.
Main Methods:
- Review of current literature on neuroimaging techniques.
- Analysis of MRI-based microstructure assessment and pathophysiological mechanisms.
- Examination of disease pathomorphosis and risk factor control.
- Evaluation of experimental models, including endothelial dysfunction.
- Assessment of omics technologies for identifying molecular targets.
Main Results:
- Neuroimaging has improved diagnosis and standardization of studies for cerebral microangiopathy.
- Lifelong MRI offers insights into brain microstructure and damage mechanisms.
- Disease presentation is evolving due to risk factor management, necessitating new risk factor identification.
- Endothelial dysfunction models show promise for understanding disease progression.
Conclusions:
- Multidisciplinary collaboration is essential for advancing the management of cerebral microangiopathy.
- Further research into novel risk factors and molecular targets is crucial.
- Development of effective pathogenetic treatments requires integrated approaches.
Abstract:
Age-dependent cerebral microangiopathy (also known as cerebral small vessel disease) is a common heterogeneous condition that ranks high as a cause of disability and mortality of elderly patients due to strokes and intracerebral hemorrhages, vascular cognitive disorders, walking disorders, and the induction of neurodegeneration. In this review, we 1) describe the achievements of neuroimaging in the diagnosis of the age-dependent cerebral microangiopathy forms and the standardization of clinical and experimental studies; 2) analyze the possibilities and prospects of using a lifetime MRI assessment of the brain microstructure and pathophysiological mechanisms of its damage associated with neurovascular unit dysfunction; 3) provide evidence of pathomorphosis of the disease, due to, among other things, the control of vascular risk factors, and indicate the need to search for new risk factors with the determination of individual susceptibility to them; 4) indicate the need to use experimental models of CMA that consider its pathomorphosis, and pay attention to the prospects of endothelial dysfunction models; 5) assess the prospects for the development of pathogenetic treatment in terms of finding molecular targets using omics technologies. The complexity of the condition and the limited approaches to its prevention indicate the need for consortium discussion and collaboration of various specialists in the field of neuroscience for advancements in the management of this disease.
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