Brain Blood Flow Major Factor In Dementia
Scientists
say they've found the amount of blood flowing into the brain may play a
larger role in the development of dementia than previously believed.
Researchers
at the Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands used magnetic
resonance imaging to examine the brains of elderly patients with and without
dementia related to Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.
As expected,
MRI images showed patients with late-onset dementia had more brain damage
compared with young adults and with seniors who had optimal cognitive function.
But the researchers
found the late-onset dementia group also had a much lower rate of blood
flow to the brain than the other two groups.
"Our findings
not only support the hypothesis that vascular factors contribute to dementia
in the elderly, they are highly suggestive that a diminished cerebral blood
flow indeed causes brain damage," said Dr. Aart Spilt, a Leiden radiology
resident and lead author of the study.
"This gives
us a clue to the genesis of dementia."
Dementia is
a loss of cognitive functions, such as thinking, remembering and reasoning,
that interferes with normal activities.
The study appears
in the September issue of the journal Radiology.
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