Significance of Cortical Micro-Infarcts in the Human Brain

Cortical micro-infarcts are due to cerebral small vessel disease. In contrast to the arteriosclerotic type of cerebral small vessel disease, cortical micro-infarcts are mainly related and due to cerebral amyloid angiopathy. Alzheimer’s disease is the most frequent neurodegenerative dementia disease associated to cerebral amyloid angiopathy and cortical micro-infarcts. Vascular dementia cannot only be due to lacunar infarcts and ischemic white matter changes, but can also be caused by cortical micro-infarcts. The latter are a frequent cause of vascular dementia and decrease globally the cerebral blood flow.