Small vessel cerebrovascular disease: the past, present, and future.
Brain infarction due to small vessel cerebrovascular disease (SVCD)-also known as small vessel infarct (SVI) or "lacunar" stroke-accounts for 20% to 25% of all ischemic strokes. Historically, SVIs have been associated with a favorable short-term prognosis. However, studies over the years have demonstrated that SVCD/SVI is perhaps a more complex and less benign phenomenon than generally presumed. The currently employed diagnostic and therapeutic strategies are based upon historical and contemporary perceptions of SVCD/SVI. What is discovered in the future will unmask the true countenance of SVCD/SVI and help furnish more accurate prognostication schemes and effective treatments for this condition. This paper is an overview of SVCD/SVI with respect to the discoveries of the past, what is known now, and what will the ongoing investigations evince in the future.
Division of Cerebrovascular Diseases & Neurocritical Care, Department of Neurology, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, 395 West 12th Avenue, 7th Floor, Suite 766, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Réza
R
Behrouz
Ali R
AR
Malek
Michel T
MT
Torbey