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Cerebral amyloid angiopathy is a syndrome characterized by recurrent spontaneous lobar cerebral hemorrhages of various sizes and in various locations. Each hemorrhage may be asymptomatic or may cause all of the symptoms of lobar hemorrhages resulting from increased intracranial pressure, including severe headache, seizure, stiff neck, and vomiting, altered consciousness, paralysis or weakness and sensory loss, and cognitive and language dysfunction, often leading to dementia after multiple episodes.
Current Knowledge
The pathological process that causes this disease is the deposition of a protein, beta-amyloid, in the walls of the medium-sized arteries of the brain. Interestingly, this protein is identical to the one found in high quantities in the brains of patients with Alzheimer’s disease.
The incidence of cerebral amyloid angiopathy is difficult to estimate but is known to increase with advancing age. It is thought to account for 15% of all intracerebral...
References
Charidimou, A., Gang, Q., & Werring, D. J. (2012). Sporadic cerebral amyloid angiopathy revisited: Recent insights into pathophysiology and clinical spectrum. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 83, 124.
Viswanathan, A., & Greenberg, S. M. (2011). Cerebral amyloid angiopathy in the elderly. Annals of Neurology, 70, 871.
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Roth, E. (2018). Cerebral Amyloid Angiopathy. In: Kreutzer, J., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_2239-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-56782-2_2239-2
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