VASCULAR DEMENTIA - A CHANGING CONCEPT

The traditional concept of vascular dementia implied the thickening of arteries of the brain as a source of diffuse reduction of cerebral bl ood pow leading to neuronal death, cerebral atrophy, and finally demen tia. Although this concept has been recently revived, with the increas ing use of brain imaging technologies, new concepts of vascular dement ia came into view. Present classification tends to sepal ate various p athomechanisms (large- and small-vessel disease), to define different brain territories involved (strategic infarctions, cortico-subcortical and subcortical lacunes, borderzone/junctional zone infarctions and w hite matter lesions) and most recently even genetics dispositions to v ascular dementia of nonatherosclerotic etiology (CADASIL). Dementia ca used by other mechanisms are separated from the aforementioned.