The occurrence of cerebrovascular atherosclerosis in Alzheimer’s disease patients

BACKGROUND: Both Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cerebrovascular atherosclerosis (CA) contributed to dementia in an aged population. Whether they share the same mechanism is unknown. AIM: Our goal was to explore the occurrence rates of CA in AD patients. METHOD: Here we examined the degree of CA in different groups of AD patients with contrast angiography. Ninety-three AD patients were recruited to the present study. Contrast computed tomography scanning and contrast angiography were performed for CA analyses. RESULT: We found that the cerebrovascular plaques were common in AD patients, which was partly correlated with the severity of AD (as determined by cognitive decline). CONCLUSION: We concluded that vascular dementia may partly correlate with AD pathology.