Population Imaging of Cerebral Small Vessel Disease
Year: 2012
Type: dissertation
Abstract: As we grow older, our brain tends to shrink. We become increasingly \nvul nerable to dementia and stroke, two common disorders in the elderly that have \ngreat impact on brain functioning and the way people live their lives. The burden of \nthese diseases will rapidly grow over the coming years as a result of aging populations \nworldwide. Currently, dementia (11.2%) and stroke (9.5%) already contribute \nsubstantially to the number of years lived with disability of people aged 60 and older; \nthis is considerably more than the years of disability caused by cardiovascular disease \n(5.0%) or by all forms of cancer (2.4%) together. Since few therapeutic possibilities \nexist for these neurological diseases in the elderly, effective prevention strategies are \nurgently needed. \nIn order to develop successful approaches to prevent dementia and stroke, it is \ncrucial to explore the early presymptomatic phases of these diseases. Markers that \nenable us to detect disease in an early stage before the clinical syndromes of dementia \nand stroke become apparent are strongly needed to gain more insight in the causes of \ndementia and stroke, to identify persons who will develop these diseases, and to \nprovide opportunities to alter or stop the disease process. Magnetic resonance imaging \n(MRI) has proven to be a very suitable technique for the investigation of these \npresymptomatic phases as it offers detailed information about presymptomatic \npathology in the brain without exposure to radiation.
Author: Mariëlle M.F. Poels
Language: English
Subfield: Clinical Neurology
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2113585476