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Clinical Significance of Microbleeds in Subcortical
Vascular Dementia
Sang Won Seo, MD; Byung Hwa Lee, MA; Eun-Joo Kim, MD, PhD; Juhee Chin, MA;
Yoon Sun Cho, MS; Uicheul Yoon, PhD; Duk L. Na, MD, PhD

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Background and Purpose—Despite many studies investigating the association between the ischemic changes and
cognitive impairment in subcortical vascular dementia (SVaD), few studies correlated cognitive impairment with
microbleeds (MBs) frequently seen in SVaD.
Methods—Participants consisted of 86 patients with SVaD who fulfilled the criteria proposed by Erkinjuntti et al.
Results—MBs occurred in 73 of 86 (84.9%) patients with SVaD. MBs were most commonly distributed in the cortex,
and the cortical MBs were most pronounced in the temporoparietal area. A multiple regression showed that the
number of cerebral MB was an independent predictor of cognitive impairment in multiple domains and the severity
of dementia even after controlling confounding factors such as age, education, ischemic severity, and number of
lacunes.
Conclusion—These results indicate that cerebral MB is one of the important factors that cause cognitive impairments in
SVaD. (Stroke. 2007;38:1949-1951.)
Key Words: cognitive impairment 䡲 microbleeds 䡲 vascular dementia

C

ognitive impairment in subcortical vascular dementia
(SVaD) probably results from ischemic interruption of
frontal subcortical circuits. Thus, SVaD is preferentially
called subcortical ischemic vascular dementia. With recent
advent of T2* gradient-echo MRI (GE-MRI), however, many
studies demonstrated that small vessel disease can produce
not only ischemia but also microbleeds (MBs),1,2 suggesting
that patients with SVaD have the comorbidity of ischemia
and MBs. Nonetheless, the clinical significance of MBs in
SVaD has not been studied yet. The objective of this study
was to examine the relationships between the number of MBs
and the cognitive deficits in SVaD.

were counted in basal ganglia and thalamus. The lacunar infarction
was defined as a small lesion (⬍15 mm in diameter) with low signal
on T1-, high signal on T2-weighted images, and perilesional halo on
fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images.

Analysis of MBs on GE-MRI
The same neurologists made a consensus on the number and location
of MBs on 20 axial slices of GE-MRI that had been obtained as
previously described.7 The MB was defined as a homogeneous round
signal loss lesion with a diameter ⱕ10 mm on the GE-MRI.
Hypointense lesions within the subarachnoid space, or those possibly
associated with calcification, traumatic brain injury or vascular
malformation were excluded.

Results
Methods

Frequency and Distribution of MBs

Patients

Details of demographic and MRI findings of the patients are
presented in Table 1. MBs occurred in 73 of 86 (84.9%)
patients. The total number of MBs in the 73 patients was 4147
and the number of MBs per patient ranged from 1 to 613 with
a median number of 13. MBs were most commonly distributed in the cortex (Table 2), and the cortical MBs were most
pronounced in the temporoparietal area (Figure).

We retrospectively found 86 patients from our memory disorder
clinic who met the clinical and imaging criteria of SVaD proposed by
Erkinjuntti et al,3 and had undergone GE-MRI in our hospital. All the
patients underwent a clinical interview, neurological examination,
and a battery of neuropsychological tests which has been previously
described.4 The study was approved by Institutional Review Board
of the hospital.

Ischemia and Lacune Rating on MRI

Effects of Cerebral MBs on Cognition and
Dementia Severity

Two neurologists blinded to clinical information scored the extent of
ischemic changes of deep and periventricular white matter using a
semiquantitative scale proposed by Scheltens et al5 Because lacunes
in deep gray matter can be associated with number of MBs,6 lacunes

To assess the clinical impact of cerebral MBs on cognition
and dementia severity, we performed a linear regression after

Received November 11, 2006; accepted December 11, 2006.
From the Department of Neurology (S.W.S., B.H.L., E.-J.K., J.C., Y.S.C., D.L.N.), Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of
Medicine, Seoul, Korea; and the Department of Biomedical Engineering (U.Y.), Hanyang University, Seoul, South Korea.
Correspondence to Dr Duk L. Na, Department of Neurology, Sungkyunkwan University, Samsung Medical Center, 50 ILwon-dong Kangnam-ku Seoul,
135-710 Korea. E-mail dukna@smc.samsung.co.kr
© 2007 American Heart Association, Inc.
Stroke is available at http://www.strokeaha.org

DOI: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.106.477315

1949

1950

Stroke

June 2007

TABLE 1.

Demographic and MRI Findings of Patients (nⴝ86)

Age, years (SD)
Gender, % female
Education, years

69.6⫾8.4
34/86 (39.5%)
9.1⫾5.1

Hypertension

65/86 (75.6%)

Diabetes mellitus

28/86 (32.6%)

Ischemic heart disease

30/86 (34.9%)

Current smoker
Use of antithrombotic medication
Ischemic score (white matter)

6/86 (7.0%)
33/86 (38.4%)
17.6⫾3.4

Frontal

5.6⫾0.9

Parietal

5.0⫾0.9

Temporal

1.1⫾1.5

Occipital

0.2⫾1.0

No. of lacune

4.8⫾3.9

the number of cerebral MBs was an independent predictor of
cognitive impairments in the following cognitive domains:
attention (the digit span-backward [t⫽⫺2.672, P⫽0.010]), verbal memory (sum of 3 free recall trials of Seoul Verbal Learning
test [SVLT] [t⫽⫺2.134, P⫽0.037], SVLT-delayed recall
[t⫽⫺2.134, P⫽0.038], and SVLT-recognition test [t⫽⫺2.656,
P⫽0.010]), visual memory (Rey-Osterrieth Complex Figure test
[RCFT]-recognition test [t⫽⫺2.274, P⫽0.027]), language (Boston Naming Test [t⫽⫺1.913, P⫽0.061], margnially significant),
visuospatial function (RCFT-copying [t⫽⫺2.183, P⫽0.033)]),
and frontal executive function (semantic Controlled Oral Word
Association Test [COWAT] [t⫽⫺2.589, P⫽0.012]). The number of cerebral MBs was also an independent predictor of
dementia severity: Mini-Mental State Examination (t⫽⫺2.201,
P⫽0.032) and Clinical Dementia Rating (t⫽1.989, P⫽0.052,
marginally significant).

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Discussion
controlling age, education, the severity of ischemia, and the
number of lacunes. The number of cerebral MBs served as an
independent variable whereas scores of neuropsychological
tests, Mini-Mental State Examination and Clinical Dementia
Rating served as dependent variables. The results showed that

Our study showed that MBs are very frequent in patients with
SVaD (84.9%). There had been 2 studies that investigated
MBs in patients with vascular dementia.8,9 One study enrolled
31 white subjects with vascular dementia (not necessarily
SVaD) and reported the frequency of MB of 65%,8 which is

A, An illustration of GE-MRI of a typical
patient who showed severe cortical MBs
predominantly in temoporoparietal area.
B, To illustrate the distribution of cortical
MBs, cortical MBs on axial scans of
GE-MRI from all patients were depicted
on the glass brain of a single subject.

Won Seo et al
TABLE 2.

Clinical Significance of MBs in Subcortical VaD

1951

Distribution MBs in Patients

No. of MBs
Frontal
742

Parietal

Temporal

Occipital

White Matter

Basal Ganglia

Thalamus

Brain Stem

Cerebellum

Total

732

1131

425

168

383

296

106

164

4147

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lower than our frequency. This difference may be attributable
to an ethnic difference as has been reported in a previous
study.1 Even considering this ethnic factor, however, our
frequency was higher than a study (frequency: 77%, and
number of MBs ranging from 1 to 85) that involved an Asian
SVaD patients.9 This difference may be explained by more
severe ischemic changes in our study (MRI criteria of
Erkinjuntti versus Fazekas grade 3) and greater number of
GE-MRI scan slices (20 versus 12).9
Clinical implications of MBs have rarely been studied. A
recent review article suggested that the cognitive impairment
of patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy might be a
associated with the number of baseline hemorrhages.2 Another study recruited patients with stroke (not vascular
dementia) and found that patients with MBs were more
impaired at frontal executive functions than those without
MBs, and postulated that MBs located in the frontal lobe and
the basal ganglia might have caused it.10 Unlike this study,
our study involving patients only with SVaD showed that the
number of cerebral MBs is the predictive factor of impairment in multiple cognitive domains. Furthermore, MBs affected the general cognitive dysfunction and the severity of
dementia in SVaD. These effects were present even after
controlling age, education, ischemic changes and lacunes on
MRI. Thus, our results suggest that not only ischemia but also
microhemorrhages are primary pathomechanisms of cognitive impairment. Histopathological data that MBs involve not
only hemosiderin deposition but also surrounding gliosis and
frank necrosis or infarction also support the clinical importance of MBs.11
Our study has limitations. Because the diagnosis was not
confirmed by pathology, we cannot exclude the possibility
that Alzheimer disease or cerebral amyloid angiopathy is
combined in our patients.

Sources of Funding
This study was supported by a grant of the Korea Health 21 R&D
Project, Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea
(A050079).

Disclosures
None.

References
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Roman GC, Chui H, Desmond DW. Research criteria for subcortical
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11. Tanaka A, Ueno Y, Nakayama Y, Takano K, Takebayashi S. Small
chronic hemorrhages and ischemic lesions in association with spontaneous intracerebral hematomas. Stroke. 1999;30:1637–1642.

Clinical Significance of Microbleeds in Subcortical Vascular Dementia
Sang Won Seo, Byung Hwa Lee, Eun-Joo Kim, Juhee Chin, Yoon Sun Cho, Uicheul Yoon and
Duk L. Na
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Stroke. 2007;38:1949-1951; originally published online May 17, 2007;
doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.106.477315
Stroke is published by the American Heart Association, 7272 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, TX 75231
Copyright © 2007 American Heart Association, Inc. All rights reserved.
Print ISSN: 0039-2499. Online ISSN: 1524-4628

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