脑白质疏松的研究进展

Progress of leukoaraiosis

脑白质疏松(LA)是老年人常见的影像学表现,其发生率随年龄增长而增加,可引起认知功能障碍、下肢功能障碍和尿失禁,但其发病机制尚不清楚。目前,年龄和高血压是LA已经确定的危险因素。在发病机制上,脑小血管病变引起的白质缺血被认为是LA发生的主要原因;但脑室旁LA和皮质下LA的病理改变不同,其主要的发生机制可能存在差异。近年来,影像学技术的发展为我们研究LA的发生机制提供新的手段。因此,本文就LA的危险因素、病理改变、发病机制及影像学表现等进行综述。

Leukoaraiosis （LA） is a common neuroimaging finding in elderly, which increases with age and has been linked to cognitive impairment, gait abnormality and urinary incontinence. But the underlying mechanism is poorly understood. At present, ischemia caused by cerebral small vessel disease has been wildly accepted as the occurrence of LA. Age and hypertension have been identified as risk factors for LA. However, neuropathologic findings indicate that there are differences between periventricular LA and subcortical LA, which may reflect different mechanism. Moreover, new technologies of neuroimaging provide a new sight in detecting the mechanism of LA. This review focused on the risk factors and neuroimaging of LA, especially on its neuropathologic changes and related mechanism.