BMJ  2006;332:1104-1105 (13 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7550.1104

Editorial

Cerebral embolism and Alzheimer's disease

Early treatment of vascular risk factors may prevent or postpone dementia

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Until recently, advanced age and genes were the only well established risk factors for Alzheimer's disease; hence it has not been possible to develop preventive strategies. Now, evidence of modifiable risk factors for Alzheimer's disease is increasing. On p 1119, Purandare and colleagues report an association between spontaneous cerebral emboli and dementia.1 This case-control study provides evidence for the longlasting debate on the causes of Alzheimer's disease versus those of vascular dementia.

Purandare and colleagues used transcranial Doppler to detect spontaneous cerebral emboli, monitoring patients with Alzheimer's disease, patients with vascular dementia, and age and sex matched controls for an hour. These emboli were detected significantly more frequently in patients with dementia, and the frequency was similar in Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia. This study thus joins a series of articles that have pointed out a necessary shift from the concept of two sharply separated types of dementia . . . [Full text of this article]

Miia Kivipelto, senior researcher

Department of Clinical Geriatrics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, 113 82 Sweden
(kivipelt@messi.uku.fi)

Alina Solomon, researcher

Department of Neuroscience and Neurology, University of Kuopio, Finland


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Relevant Article

Cerebral emboli as a potential cause of Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia: case-control study
Nitin Purandare, Alistair Burns, Kevin J Daly, Jayne Hardicre, Julie Morris, Gary Macfarlane, and Charles McCollum
BMJ 2006 332: 1119-1124. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Rapp, J. H., Pan, X. M., Neumann, M., Hong, M., Hollenbeck, K., Liu, J. (2008). Microemboli Composed of Cholesterol Crystals Disrupt the Blood-Brain Barrier and Reduce Cognition. Stroke 39: 2354-2361 [Abstract] [Full text]  

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