Silent brain infarcts in vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease: do theplay any role?

Silent brain infarcts (SBI) are frequent among elderly population Their eff ect on cognitive decline is currently a matter of controversy. To assess whether the presence, number and localization of SBI are related to various dementias, we used cranial computed tomography (CT) to detect th e existence of ischemic lesions in patients without clinical evidence of st roke included in the GERMCIDE project (1992-1994). Statistical analysis (ch i square) showed a significant relationship between the presence and number of SBI and all types of dementia (p<0.05). These results suggest, as those in other recent studies, that a new approach should be considered for the evaluation of vascular risk factors in patients with dementia.