Vascular dementia
| Vascular dementia | |
|---|---|
| Other names | Dementia due to cerebrovascular disease; Vascular cognitive impairment |
| Brain atrophy from vascular dementia | |
| Specialty | Psychiatry, neurology |
| Symptoms | Cognitive impairment, short-term memory loss |
| Complications | Heart disease, loss of ability to care for self and interact, pneumonia |
| Causes | Conditions that impair blood vessels in the brain and therefore interfere with oxygen delivery to the brain |
| Risk factors | High blood pressure, high cholesterol, atrial fibrillation, diabetes |
| Diagnostic method | Lab test, neuroimaging test, neuropsychological testing |
| Differential diagnosis | Alzheimer’s disease |
| Treatment | Symptomatic |
| Frequency | 15-30% of dementia cases in the United States, Europe, and Asia |
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Vascular dementia is dementia caused by a series of strokes. Restricted blood flow due to strokes reduces oxygen and glucose delivery to the brain, causing cell injury and neurological deficits in the affected region. Subtypes of vascular dementia include subcortical vascular dementia, multi-infarct dementia, stroke-related dementia, and mixed dementia.
Subcortical vascular dementia occurs from damage to small blood vessels in the brain. Multi-infarct dementia results from a series of small strokes affecting several brain regions. Stroke-related dementia involving successive small strokes causes a more gradual decline in cognition. Dementia may occur when neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular pathologies are mixed, as in susceptible elderly people (75 years and older). Cognitive decline can be traced back to occurrence of successive strokes.
ICD-11 lists vascular dementia as dementia due to cerebrovascular disease. DSM-5 lists vascular dementia as either major or mild vascular neurocognitive disorder.