Prevalence of cerebral microbleeds in Alzheimer's disease, dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson's disease dementia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Neurobiol Aging. 2024 Feb:134:74-83. doi: 10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2023.11.006. Epub 2023 Nov 19.

Abstract

Cerebral microbleeds (CMB) are often associated with vascular risk factors and/or cerebral amyloid angiopathy and are frequently identified in people with dementia. The present study therefore aimed to estimate the pooled prevalence and associations of CMB in Alzheimer's disease (AD), dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Parkinson's disease dementia (PDD), using meta-analytic methods. Sixty-five MRI studies were included after a systematic search on major electronic databases. We found that the prevalence of CMB was comparable across the three dementia subtypes (31-36%) and was highly influenced by the MRI techniques used. CMB in AD were associated with a history of hypertension and amyloid-β burden. In contrast, CMB in DLB, despite being predominantly lobar, were associated with hypertension, but not amyloid-β burden. These findings suggest that the underlying pathophysiology of CMB in DLB might differ from that of AD. There was substantially larger number of AD studies identified and more studies evaluating CMB in Lewy body dementias are warranted.

Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease; Cerebrovascular disease; Lewy body dementia; Microbleeds.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Systematic Review
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease* / complications
  • Alzheimer Disease* / epidemiology
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Cerebral Hemorrhage / complications
  • Cerebral Hemorrhage / diagnostic imaging
  • Cerebral Hemorrhage / epidemiology
  • Dementia* / epidemiology
  • Dementia* / etiology
  • Humans
  • Hypertension* / complications
  • Lewy Body Disease* / complications
  • Lewy Body Disease* / epidemiology
  • Parkinson Disease* / complications
  • Parkinson Disease* / epidemiology
  • Prevalence

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides