Asymptomatic cerebral microbleeds seen in healthy subjects have a strong association with asymptomatic lacunar infarction.
BACKGROUND
Cerebral microbleed (CMB), which is conspicuous on gradient-echo T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, is a risk factor of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). CMBs have been detected even in neurologically healthy persons, who also seem prone to be affected by stroke, not only ICH but also cerebral infarction.


RESULTS
The presence of CMB was investigated in brain dock participants, making reference to silent lacunar infarction (SLI). Participants comprised 377 neurologically healthy persons and 21 (5.6%) had CMB detected, which was associated with a high incidence of hypertension, other conventional risk factors having no significant correlation with CMB. In a simple correlation analysis, CMB showed a positive association with age and systolic blood pressure (SBP). Logistic regression analysis revealed that SLI was the factor most strongly associated with CMB. Moreover, individuals who had both CMB and SLI had higher SBP than other groups.


CONCLUSIONS
The etiology of CMB is similar to that of SLI.
Igase
Michiya
M
Department of Geriatric Medicine, Ehime University Graduate School of Medicine, Sitsukawa, Toon 791-0295, Japan. migase@m.ehime-u.ac.jp
Tabara
Yasuharu
Y
Igase
Keiji
K
Nagai
Tokihisa
T
Ochi
Namiko
N
Kido
Tomoko
T
Nakura
Jun
J
Sadamoto
Kazuhiko
K
Kohara
Katsuhiko
K
Miki
Tetsuro
T
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001794:Blood Pressure; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007427:Intracranial Pressure; D016015:Logistic Models; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D012720:Severity of Illness Index