Review Article
Neurodegenerative and Vascular Involvement in Post Stroke Dementia
Salvatore Caratozzolo*, Andrea Scalvini, Simona Cocchi, Serena Gallo Cassarino, Silvia Pelizzari, Marina Zanetti, Luca Rozzini and Alessandro PadovaniDepartment of Clinical and Experimental Science, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
- *Corresponding Author:
- Salvatore Caratozzolo
Department of Clinical and Experimental Science
University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy
Tel: +393930406304
E-mail: salvatore.caratozzolo@hotmail.com
Received date: October 19, 2016; Accepted date: November 09, 2016; Published date: November 16, 2016
Citation: Caratozzolo S, Scalvini A, Cocchi S, Cassarino SG, Pelizzari S, et al. (2016) Neurodegenerative and Vascular Involvement in Post Stroke Dementia. J Alzheimers Dis Parkinsonism 6:283. doi: 10.4172/2161-0460.1000283
Copyright: © 2016 Caratozzolo S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Cognitive Impairment and Dementia are not rare conditions in patients with stroke. The close link between cerebrovascular disease and dementia appears a clear public health problem. With an ischemic stroke, the onset of vascular dementia could be triggered, mostly in those patients with a pre-existing cognitive decline. The underlying mechanisms of post-stroke cognitive impairment are not known in detail. Neurodegeneration and vascular factors are activated, with coexistence, when also overlap, of these two pathological mechanisms within the neuro-vascular unit. Several works have found that acute stroke can cause changes in brain volume affecting cognitive abilities frequently, but not constantly, as found in Alzheimer’s disease patients. This review analyzes previous data on the role of stroke in initiating or promoting neurodegenerative dementia.
