Cerebrall Autosomal Dominant Artheriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy

CADASIL is a hereditary cerebrovascular disease that affects small vessels and usually causes recurrent subcortical infarctions with white matter involvement. It is usually closely related to migraine history, in advanced cases a subcortical dementia usually occurs. It is a disease characterized by a picture of progressive deterioration, and in very advanced stages a pseudobulbar paralysis can occur. In 1955 some cases were described that were called hereditary vascular dementia, later in 1977 it was renamed hereditary multi-infarct dementia, in 1991 they came to be referred to as familial arteriopathic leukoencephalopathy [1]. Finally, with the discovery of the gene involved in the disease, it was renamed CADASIL in 1996 by Joutel. As we can see, the pathological discovery of the disease is of recent discovery, thus adopting the various nomenclatures described above.