scholarly journals Ischemic Stroke in a Patient with Stable CADASIL during COVID-19: A Case Report

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 1615
Author(s):  
Alessandro Cruciani ◽  
Fabio Pilato ◽  
Mariagrazia Rossi ◽  
Francesco Motolese ◽  
Vincenzo Di Lazzaro ◽  
...  

Background: SARS-CoV-2 infection has been associated with different neurological conditions such as Guillain-Barré, encephalitis and stroke. Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is an inherited small-vessel disease characterized by recurrent ischemic stroke, cognitive decline, migraine and mood disturbances. One of the mechanisms involved in CADASIL pathogenesis is endothelial dysfunction, which causes an increased risk of recurrent strokes. Since COVID-19 infection is also associated with coagulopathy and endothelial dysfunction, the risk of ischemic stroke might be even higher in this population. We describe the case of a CADASIL patient who developed an acute ischemic stroke after SARS-CoV-2 infection. In patients with diseases causing endothelial dysregulation, such as CADASIL, the hypercoagulability related to COVID-19 may contribute to the risk of stroke recurrence.

Stroke ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyung-Min Kwon ◽  
Michael J Lynn ◽  
Tanya N Turan ◽  
Colin P Derdeyn ◽  
David Fiorella ◽  
...  

Background: Intracranial atherosclerotic stenosis (ICAS) and small vessel disease (SVD) may coexist. We investigated the frequency and risk factors for SVD in SAMMPRIS patients and the impact of SVD on stroke recurrence in the medical arm of the trial. Methods: Of 451 patients enrolled in SAMMPRIS, 313 had baseline brain MRIs read centrally for SVD. SVD was defined by any of the following: old lacunar infarction, Fazekas score of 2-3 for white matter hyperintensities, or microbleeds. We compared risk factors in patients with vs. without SVD using Fisher’s exact test (for percentages), independent groups t test (for means) or Wilcoxon rank sum test (for medians), and compared the survival curves of patients with vs. without SVD in the medical arm for ischemic stroke in the territory of the stenotic artery and any ischemic stroke using the logrank test. Results: Of the 313 patients, 161 (51.4%) had SVD on the baseline MRI. Variables that were significantly (p<0.05) higher in patients with SVD were age, diabetes, lipid disorder, baseline SBP, coronary disease, and old infarct in the territory. The Kaplan-Meier curves in the figure show that patients with SVD were at significantly higher risk of any ischemic stroke (p = 0.048) but not stroke in the territory (p = 0.10) compared with patients without SVD. Conclusion: SVD in patients with ICAS is common, especially in patients who are older, diabetic, hyperlipidemic, and have higher SBP. Patients with ICAS and coexistent SVD are at higher risk of any ischemic stroke but may not be at higher risk for stroke in the territory.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yiqiao Wang ◽  
Xiaoting Yan ◽  
Jie Zhan ◽  
Peiming Zhang ◽  
Guangming Zhang ◽  
...  

Objective: The aim of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess whether cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) on neuroimaging of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) is associated with an increased risk of hemorrhagic transformation (HT), symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), and poor functional outcome (PFO).Methods: A thorough search of several databases was carried out to identify relevant studies up to December 2020. We included studies of patients with AIS and neuroimaging markers of CSVD treated with IVT. The primary outcome was HT, and the secondary outcomes were sICH and 3-month PFO. The quality of the studies involved was evaluated using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale (NOS). The meta-analysis with the fixed effects model was performed.Results: Twenty-four eligible studies (n = 9,419) were pooled in the meta-analysis. All included studies were regarded as high quality with the NOS scores of at least 6 points. The meta-analysis revealed associations between the presence of CSVD and HT, sICH, and the 3-month PFO after IVT. Compared with no CSVD, the presence of CSVD was associated with an increased risk of HT (OR: 1.81, 95% CI: 1.52–2.16), sICH (OR: 2.42, 95% CI: 1.76–3.33), and 3-month PFO (OR: 2.15, 95% CI: 1.89–2.44). For patients with AIS complicated with CSVD, compared with a CSVD score of 0–1, a CSVD score of 2–4 was associated with an increased risk of HT (OR: 3.10, 95% CI: 1.67–5.77), sICH (OR: 2.86, 95% CI: 1.26–6.49), and 3-month PFO (OR: 4.58, 95% CI: 2.97–7.06).Conclusion: Patients with AIS complicated with neuroimaging markers of CSVD are at increased risk of HT and 3-month PFO after IVT. However, it is still necessary to clarify the exact role of CSVD in the occurrence, development, and prognosis of AIS.Systematic Review Registration:www.ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier CRD4202123 3900.


2021 ◽  
pp. 174749302110280
Author(s):  
Xiaomeng Yang ◽  
Jing Jing ◽  
Xia Meng ◽  
Zixiao Li ◽  
Yuesong Pan ◽  
...  

Background and purpose: We aimed to explore the frequencies, risk factors, and natural history of ESUS through a national prospective registry in China. Methods: Between August 2015 and March 2018, the Third China National Stroke Registry (CNSR-III) recruited consecutive patients with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA) in China. The baseline characteristics, risks of stroke, and mortality in patients with ESUS were described and compared with that in patients with other causative subtypes. Results: A total of 15166 TIA and ischemic stroke patients were enrolled in CNSR-III. Among 8528 ischemic stroke with standard diagnostic work-up, 2415 (28.3%) patients were diagnosed with ESUS. The mean age was 61 years and 70% of them were male. Compared to patients with cardioembolic strokes and small vessel disease, patients with ESUS had higher prevalence of nonstenosing large artery atherosclerosis (37.93% vs 31.26%, P=0.008 and 37.93% vs 34.40%, P=0.044 respectively). The cumulative probability of stroke recurrence in patients with ESUS at 3 month and 1 year was 5.59% and 8.74%. Compared with ESUS patients (0.70% and 1.99%), patients with the large artery atherosclerosis and cardioembolic strokes had higher cumulative probability of death at 3 month (1.94% and 3.22%) and 1 year (4.17% and 7.39%). Conclusions: ESUS is a common cause of ischemic stroke in Chinese population with a higher stroke recurrence of ESUS than previous reported. It was more likely to have nonstenosing large artery atherosclerosis in patients with ESUS than with cardioembolic strokes and small vessel disease.


2015 ◽  
Vol 40 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 157-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stewart J. Wiseman ◽  
Fergus N. Doubal ◽  
Francesca M. Chappell ◽  
Maria C. Valdés-Hernández ◽  
Xin Wang ◽  
...  

Background: The cause of lacunar ischemic stroke, a clinical feature of cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), is largely unknown. Inflammation and endothelial dysfunction have been implicated. Plasma biomarkers could provide mechanistic insights but current data are conflicting. White matter hyperintensities (WMHs) are an important imaging biomarker of SVD. It is unknown if plasma biomarkers add predictive capacity beyond age and vascular risk factors in explaining WMH. Methods: We prospectively recruited patients presenting with non-disabling ischemic stroke, classifying them clinically and with the help of MRI as lacunar or cortical. We measured biomarkers of inflammation, endothelial dysfunction and hemostasis for >1 month after stroke and compared biomarker levels between stroke subtypes. We quantitatively calculated WMH. We used multiple linear regression analysis to model WMH as a function of age, sex, hypertension and smoking (the baseline model). We fitted exploratory models using plasma biomarkers as predictor variables to assess model improvement over baseline. Results: We recruited 125 patients. The lacunar group (n = 65) had lower tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) levels in unadjusted (7.39 vs. 8.59 ng/ml, p = 0.029) and adjusted (p = 0.035) analyses compared with the cortical group (n = 60). There were no significant differences in the other plasma biomarkers. The results for t-PA were consistent with an updated meta-analysis, although the effect remains non-significant (standardized mean difference -0.08 (95% CI -0.25 to 0.09)). The baseline regression model explained 29% of the variance in quantitative WMH (R2 0.289). Inflammatory biomarkers showed minor improvement over baseline (R2 0.291), but the other plasma biomarkers did not improve the baseline model. Conclusion: Plasma t-PA levels appear to differ between lacunar and cortical stroke subtypes, late after stroke, independent of age, sex and vascular risk factors and may reflect endothelial dysfunction. Except for a minor additional predictive effect of inflammatory markers, plasma biomarkers do not relate to WMH severity in this small stroke population.


Neurology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 88 (24) ◽  
pp. 2260-2267 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kui Kai Lau ◽  
Linxin Li ◽  
Ursula Schulz ◽  
Michela Simoni ◽  
Koon Ho Chan ◽  
...  

Objective:In patients with TIA and ischemic stroke, we validated the total small vessel disease (SVD) score by determining its prognostic value for recurrent stroke.Methods:Two independent prospective studies were conducted, one comprising predominantly Caucasian patients with TIA/ischemic stroke (Oxford Vascular Study [OXVASC]) and one predominantly Chinese patients with ischemic stroke (University of Hong Kong [HKU]). Cerebral MRI was performed and assessed for lacunes, microbleeds, white matter hyperintensities (WMH), and perivascular spaces (PVS). Predictive value of total SVD score for risk of recurrent stroke was determined and potential refinements considered.Results:In 2,002 patients with TIA/ischemic stroke (OXVASC n = 1,028, HKU n = 974, 6,924 patient-years follow-up), a higher score was associated with an increased risk of recurrent ischemic stroke (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] per unit increase: 1.32, 1.16–1.51, p < 0.0001; c statistic 0.61, 0.56–0.65, p < 0.0001) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) (HR 1.54, 1.11–2.13, p = 0.009; c statistic 0.65, 0.54–0.76, p = 0.006). A higher score predicted recurrent stroke in SVD and non-SVD TIA/ischemic stroke subtypes (c statistic 0.67, 0.59–0.74, p < 0.0001 and 0.60, 0.55–0.65, p < 0.0001). Including burden of microbleeds and WMH and adjusting the cutoff of basal ganglia PVS potentially improved predictive power for ICH (c statistic 0.71, 0.60–0.81, phet = 0.45), but not for recurrent ischemic stroke (c statistic 0.60, 0.56–0.65, phet = 0.76) on internal validation.Conclusions:The total SVD score has predictive value for recurrent stroke after TIA/ischemic stroke. Prediction of recurrence in patients with nonlacunar events highlights the potential role of SVD in wider stroke etiology.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-137
Author(s):  
Huimin Chen ◽  
Yuesong Pan ◽  
Lixia Zong ◽  
Jing Jing ◽  
Xia Meng ◽  
...  

BackgroundThe effect of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and intracranial arterial stenosis (ICAS) on stroke outcomes remains unclear.MethodsData of 1045 patients with minor stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA) were obtained from 45 sites of the Clopidogrel in High-Risk Patients with Acute Non-disabling Cerebrovascular Events (CHANCE) trial. We assessed the associations of burdens of CSVD and ICAS with new strokes and bleeding events using multivariate Cox regression models and those with modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores using ordinal logistic regression models.ResultsAmong the 1045 patients, CSVD was present in 830 cases (79.4%) and ICAS in 460 (44.0%). Patients with >1 ICAS segment showed the highest risk of new strokes (HR 2.03, 95% CI 1.15 to 3.56, p=0.01). No association between CSVD and the occurrence of new strokes was found. The presence of severe CSVD (common OR (cOR) 2.01, 95% CI 1.40 to 2.89, p<0.001) and >1 ICAS segment (cOR 2.15, 95% CI 1.57 to 2.93, p<0.001) was associated with higher mRS scores. Severe CSVD (HR 10.70, 95% CI 1.16 to 99.04, p=0.04), but not ICAS, was associated with a higher risk of bleeding events. Six-point modified CSVD score improved the predictive power for bleeding events and disability.InterpretationCSVD is associated with more disability and bleeding events, and ICAS is associated with an increased risk of stroke and disability in patients with minor stroke and TIA at 3 months. CSVD and ICAS may represent different vascular pathologies and play distinct roles in stroke outcomes.Trial registration numberNCT00979589


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (14) ◽  
pp. 7357
Author(s):  
Elena Muiño ◽  
Israel Fernández-Cadenas ◽  
Adrià Arboix

CADASIL (Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy) is a small vessel disease caused by mutations in NOTCH3 that lead to an odd number of cysteines in the epidermal growth factor (EGF)-like repeat domain, causing protein misfolding and aggregation. The main symptoms are migraines, psychiatric disorders, recurrent strokes, and dementia. Omic technologies allow the massive study of different molecules for understanding diseases in a non-biased manner or even for discovering targets and their possible treatments. We analyzed the progress in understanding CADASIL that has been made possible by omics sciences. For this purpose, we included studies that focused on CADASIL and used omics techniques, searching bibliographic resources, such as PubMed. We excluded studies with other phenotypes, such as migraine or leukodystrophies. A total of 18 articles were reviewed. Due to the high prevalence of NOTCH3 mutations considered pathogenic to date in genomic repositories, one can ask whether all of them produce CADASIL, different degrees of the disease, or whether they are just a risk factor for small vessel disease. Besides, proteomics and transcriptomics studies found that the molecules that are significantly altered in CADASIL are mainly related to cell adhesion, the cytoskeleton or extracellular matrix components, misfolding control, autophagia, angiogenesis, or the transforming growth factor β (TGFβ) signaling pathway. The omics studies performed on CADASIL have been useful for understanding the biological mechanisms and could be key factors for finding potential drug targets.


2015 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 72-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Poggesi ◽  
Marco Pasi ◽  
Francesca Pescini ◽  
Leonardo Pantoni ◽  
Domenico Inzitari

The term cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) refers to a group of pathologic processes with various etiologies that affect small arteries, arterioles, venules, and capillaries of the brain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlates of SVD are lacunes, recent small subcortical infarcts, white-matter hyperintensities, enlarged perivascular spaces, microbleeds, and brain atrophy. Endothelial dysfunction is thought to have a role in the mechanisms leading to SVD-related brain changes, and the study of endothelial dysfunction has been proposed as an important step for a better comprehension of cerebral SVD. Among available methods to assess endothelial function in vivo, measurement of molecules of endothelial origin in peripheral blood is currently receiving selective attention. These molecules include products of endothelial cells that change when the endothelium is activated, as well as molecules that reflect endothelial damage and repair. This review examines the main molecular factors involved in both endothelial function and dysfunction, and the evidence linking endothelial dysfunction with cerebral SVD, and gives an overview of clinical studies that have investigated the possible association between endothelial circulating biomarkers and SVD-related brain changes.


Biomolecules ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 994
Author(s):  
Natasha Ting Lee ◽  
Lin Kooi Ong ◽  
Prajwal Gyawali ◽  
Che Mohd Nasril Che Mohd Nassir ◽  
Muzaimi Mustapha ◽  
...  

The cerebral endothelium is an active interface between blood and the central nervous system. In addition to being a physical barrier between the blood and the brain, the endothelium also actively regulates metabolic homeostasis, vascular tone and permeability, coagulation, and movement of immune cells. Being part of the blood–brain barrier, endothelial cells of the brain have specialized morphology, physiology, and phenotypes due to their unique microenvironment. Known cardiovascular risk factors facilitate cerebral endothelial dysfunction, leading to impaired vasodilation, an aggravated inflammatory response, as well as increased oxidative stress and vascular proliferation. This culminates in the thrombo-inflammatory response, an underlying cause of ischemic stroke and cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD). These events are further exacerbated when blood flow is returned to the brain after a period of ischemia, a phenomenon termed ischemia-reperfusion injury. Purinergic signaling is an endogenous molecular pathway in which the enzymes CD39 and CD73 catabolize extracellular adenosine triphosphate (eATP) to adenosine. After ischemia and CSVD, eATP is released from dying neurons as a damage molecule, triggering thrombosis and inflammation. In contrast, adenosine is anti-thrombotic, protects against oxidative stress, and suppresses the immune response. Evidently, therapies that promote adenosine generation or boost CD39 activity at the site of endothelial injury have promising benefits in the context of atherothrombotic stroke and can be extended to current CSVD known pathomechanisms. Here, we have reviewed the rationale and benefits of CD39 and CD39 therapies to treat endothelial dysfunction in the brain.


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