The overlap between vascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease - lessons from pathology

Recent epidemiological and clinico-pathological data indicate considerable overlap between cerebrovascular disease (CVD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) and suggest additive or synergistic effects of both pathologies on cognitive decline. The most frequent vascular pathologies in the aging brain and in AD are cerebral amyloid angiopathy and small vessel disease. Up to 84% of aged subjects show morphological substrates of CVD in addition to AD pathology. AD brains with minor CVD, similar to pure vascular dementia, show subcortical vascular lesions in about two-thirds, while in mixed type dementia (AD plus vascular dementia), multiple larger infarcts are more frequent. Small infarcts in patients with full-blown AD…

• AS
  Alzheimer's Society
• NI
  National Institute for Health and Care Research
• DM
  Dunhill Medical Trust

  Award: R173/1110
• NU
  Newcastle University

  Award: G0400074
• NU
  Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
• MR
  Medical Research Council

  Award: G0400074