Blood-brain barrier permeability is increased in normal appearing white matter in patients with lacunar stroke and leukoaraiosis

R Topakian (1) , T R Barrick (1) , F A Howe (1) , H S Markus (1)

1 Clinical Neuroscience, St. George's University of London

The pathogenesis of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is incompletely understood. Endothelial dysfunction has been implicated and may result in increased blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability with leakage of blood constituents into the vessel wall and white matter. We used contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to determine whether there was evidence for BBB permeability in the white matter of patients with SVD, and whether this was present not only in areas of leukoaraiosis (white matter lesions,WML) but also in normal appearing white matter (NAWM).

Mots clés: STROKE; VASCULAR DEMENTIA

R Topakian, T R Barrick, F A Howe, H S Markus. Blood-brain barrier permeability is increased in normal appearing white matter in patients with lacunar stroke and leukoaraiosis. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, 2010, 81 (2), pp.192. ⟨10.1136/jnnp.2009.172072⟩. ⟨hal-00552765⟩