Panteleimon Giannakopoulos
Geneva University School of Medicine, Switzerland
Title: Cerebral microbleeds and cognitive decline in old age
Biography
Biography: Panteleimon Giannakopoulos
Abstract
The presence of cerebral microbleeds has been associated with dementia and cognitive decline, although studies report confl icting
results. Our aim was to determine the potential role of the presence and location of cerebral microbleeds in early stages of
cognitive decline. Baseline 3T MR imaging examinations including SWI sequences of 328 cognitively intact community-dwelling
controls and 72 subjects with mild cognitive impairment were analyzed with respect to the presence and distribution of cerebral
microbleeds. A neuropsychological follow-up of controls was performed at 18 months post inclusion and identifi ed cases with subtle
cognitive defi cits were referred to as controls with a deteriorating condition. Group diff erences in radiologic parameters were studied
by using nonparametric tests, 1-way analysis of variance, and Spearman correlation coeffi cients. Cerebral microbleed prevalence was
similar in subjects with mild cognitive impairment and controls with stable and cognitively deteriorating conditions (25%-31.9%).
In all diagnostic groups, lobar cerebral microbleeds were more common. Th ey occurred in 20.1% of all cases compared with 6.5% of
cases with deep cerebral microbleeds. None of the investigated variables (age, sex, microbleed number, location and depth, baseline
Mini-Mental State Examination score, and the Fazekas score) were signifi cantly associated with cognitive deterioration with the
exception of education of >12 years showing a slight but signifi cant protective eff ect (OR, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.22-0.92; P = .028). Th e
Mini-Mental State Examination and the Buschke total score were correlated with neither the total number nor lobar-versus-deep
location of cerebral micro