Background and purpose: Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a monogenic cerebral small vessel disease. The role of intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in CADASIL remains elusive. The present study aims to investigate the prevalence, characteristics, and risk factors for ICH in CADASIL.
Methods: This retrospective cross-sectional study investigated ICH and cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) in brain susceptibility-weighted imaging or T2*-weighted gradient-recalled echo images of 127 Taiwanese patients with genetically confirmed CADASIL. We analyzed CMBs, lacunes, white matter hyperintensity, and perivascular space. The total small vessel disease score (range, 0-4) was calculated to estimate the overall magnetic resonance imaging burden of small vessel disease. Multivariate regression analysis was performed to identify factors related to ICH lesions in CADASIL.
Results: Thirty-seven ICH lesions, including 15 symptomatic and 22 asymptomatic lesions, were found in 27 (21.3% [95% CI, 14.0%-30.9%]) of the 127 patients with CADASIL. The thalamus and lobar regions were the most common ICH locations, and 72.7% of the lobar hemorrhages occurred silently. Patients with CADASIL with ICH lesions more often had hypertension and a higher total small vessel disease score than those without ICH (odds ratio [95% CI]: 3.22 [1.25-8.30] and 3.79 [1.51-9.51]). The presence of CMBs in the brain stem and a total CMB count >10 were independently associated with ICH lesions in patients with CADASIL, with odds ratio (95% CI) of 5.82 (1.80-18.80) and 3.83 (1.08-13.67), respectively.
Conclusions: ICH is an underestimated but important manifestation of CADASIL. The location and number of CMBs are associated with the presence of ICH lesions in patients with CADASIL.
Keywords: brain; cerebral hemorrhage; hypertension; magnetic resonance imaging; odds ratio; prevalence.