You are here

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Research paper
Cerebral microbleeds in the population based AGES-Reykjavik study: prevalence and location
  1. S Sveinbjornsdottir1,2,3,
  2. S Sigurdsson1,
  3. T Aspelund1,
  4. O Kjartansson1,3,
  5. G Eiriksdottir1,
  6. B Valtysdottir1,
  7. O L Lopez4,
  8. M A van Buchem5,
  9. P V Jonsson1,2,3,
  10. V Gudnason1,2,
  11. L J Launer6
  1. 1
    The Icelandic Heart Association, Kopavogur, Iceland
  2. 2
    The University of Iceland, Faculty of Medicine, Reykjavik, Iceland
  3. 3
    Departments of Neurology and Radiology, Landspitali University Hospital, Reykjavik, Iceland
  4. 4
    Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA
  5. 5
    Department of Radiology, Leiden University Medical Centre, Leiden, The Netherlands
  6. 6
    National Institute on Aging, Bethesda, Maryland, USA
  1. Dr S Sveinbjornsdottir, Department of Neurology, Landspitali University Hospital, C12, Fossvogur, 108 Reykjavik, Iceland; sigurls{at}landspitali.is

Abstract

Background and purpose: Incidental foci of signal loss suggestive of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are frequent findings on gradient echo T2* weighted MRI (T2* MRI) of patients with haemorrhagic or ischaemic stroke. There are few prevalence data on older populations. This paper reports on the prevalence and location of CMBs in a community based cohort of older men and women (born 1907–1935) who participated in the Age Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES)-Reykjavik Study, a population based cohort study that followed the Reykjavik Study

Methods: As part of the examination, all eligible and consenting cohort members underwent a full brain MRI, and blood was drawn for genotyping. Results are based on the first 1962 men (n = 820) and women (n = 1142), mean age 76 years, with complete MRI and demographic information available.

Results: Evidence of CMBs was found in 218 participants (11.1% (95% CI 9.8% to 12.6%)); men had significantly more CMBs than women (14.4% vs 8.8%; p = 0.0002, age adjusted). The prevalence of CMBs increased with age (p = 0.0001) in both men (p = 0.006) and women (p = 0.007). CMBs were located in the cerebral lobes (70%), the basal ganglia region (10.5%) and infratentorium (18.6%). Having a CMB was significantly associated with a homozygote Apo E 44 genotype (p = 0.01).

Conclusion: Cerebral microbleeds are common in older persons. The association with homozygote Apo E 4 genotype and finding a relative predominance in the parietal lobes might indicate an association with amyloid angiopathy.

https://doi.org/10.1136/jnnp.2007.121913

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Competing interests: None.

    • Funding: Funding for this study was provided by the National Institutes of Health contract N01-AG-1-2100, National Institute on Aging Intramural Research Program, Hjartavernd (the Icelandic Heart Association) and the Althingi (the Icelandic Parliament).

    • Ethics approval: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB, VSN 00-063) of Iceland, the Icelandic Data Protection Committee and the IRB serving the National Institute on Aging.