Do you know what Cerebral Small Vessel Disease is? Would you believe that adults 60 to 90-years-old show signs of this disease 95% of the time? Consequences of this disease include cognitive decline, problems with walking or balance, strokes, and vascular dementia.
Do You Know About Cerebral Small Vessel Disease?
Other names for this disease are small vessel ischemic disease, white matter disease, periventricular white matter changes, perivascular chronic ischemic white matter disease of aging, and more.
Cerebral Small Vessel Disease (SVD) is an umbrella term that covers a bunch of different abnormalities with the small blood vessels in your brain. Just like the body’s bigger blood vessels, it can develop plaque, inflammation, and chronic damage. This can lead to the small blood vessels in your brain getting blocked.
Blocked blood vessels mean your brain won’t get oxygen or will leak, which can cause bleeding.
Your brain can change appearance on MRIs. The report will say that there has been “white matter changes.” Meaning the doctor can see signs of SVD.
Symptoms and Causes of SVD
Symptoms are often not very noticeable. They can include cognitive impairment, problems with walking and balance, strokes, depression, vascular dementia, other dementias, possible disability, and death.
It’s unknown what specifically causes SVD since it’s an umbrella term. There are certain risk factors like hypertension, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, diabetes, smoking, and age.
If you are concerned that you or a loved one is at risk, don’t be afraid to ask for an MRI.
There are studies to figure out how to treat or prevent SVD, but there is no clear conclusion yet.
Read more here.