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Neuropsychological Effects of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy

  • Behavior (H Kirshner, Section Editor)
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Abstract

Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a condition of the cerebral arterioles and to a lesser extent capillaries and veins, wherein beta-amyloid is deposited. In arterioles, this preferentially targets vascular smooth muscle cells and in the later stages undermines the stability of the vessel. This condition is frequently comorbid with Alzheimer’s disease and its role in cognitive impairment and dementia is a topic of considerable recent research. This article reviews recent literature which confirms that CAA independently contributes to cognitive impairment by potentiating the neurodegeneration of Alzheimer’s disease, by predisposing to microhemorrhagic and microischemic injury to the brain parenchyma, and by interfering with the autoregulation of CNS blood flow. In this review, we discuss the clinical presentation of cerebral amyloid angiopathy, with a focus on the neuropsychological manifestations of this vasculopathy.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dept of Neurology, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, 1301 Medical Center Dr, TVC Neurology Suite, Nashville, TN, 37232, USA

    Matthew Schrag & Howard Kirshner

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  1. Matthew Schrag
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Correspondence to Howard Kirshner.

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Matthew Schrag and Howard Kirshner declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Behavior

*A special thank you to Dr. John Brust for taking the time to review this article.

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Schrag, M., Kirshner, H. Neuropsychological Effects of Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy. Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep 16, 76 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-016-0674-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11910-016-0674-1

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