Type:
Educational Exhibit
Keywords:
Ischaemia / Infarction, Dementia, Staging, MR, CT, Neuroradiology brain, CNS, Neuro, Not applicable
Authors:
T. Lorga1, C. Casimiro2, I. Gil2; 1Lisbon/PT, 2Lisboa/PT
DOI:
10.26044/ecr2020/C-02448
Background
The aging process of the brain involves an array of multifactorial events such as mitochondrial dysfunction, cellular aging, neuronal death, and genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors. It can have functional consequences or be a process where cognition remains unimpaired, thus the aging brain’s typical changes are closely related to those of neurodegeneration. It is postulated that these two different entities may form a spectrum as there is considerable overlap between patterns of brain pathology in aging and neurodegenerative disease.
The findings of the aging brain are often overlooked, and the assessment of normal structural versus pathological brain aging can be challenging. Therefore, knowledge on normal and pathological changes of the brain such as brain atrophy, white matter hyperintensities, enlarged perivascular spaces, silent infarctions and microbleeds is of paramount importance for daily clinical neuroradiology practice.