The prevalence and risk factors of cerebral microbleeds in patients with Parkinson's disease

Introduction: Cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are frequently observed in patients with cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer's disease. CMBs that are located in the deep or infratentorial regions and those that are present strictly in the lobar regions reflect hypertensive vasculopathy and cerebral amyloid angiopathy, respectively. The development of CMBs can be accelerated by clinical factors. Orthostatic hypotension (OH) has been reported to be associated with cerebral small vessel disease, such as white matter lesions in Parkinson's disease (PD). We investigated the prevalence, location and risk factors, including OH, for CMBs in patients with PD.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective chart review of consecutive patients with PD who were admitted to the Department of Neurology, Juntendo University School of Medicine between January 2010 and July 2014. One hundred and sixty-seven patients with PD who underwent gradient echo T2*-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the brain were included in the present study. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate the associations between risk factors and the presence of CMBs.

Results: CMBs were detected in 29 (17.4%) patients. Among the patients with CMBs, 19 (65.5%) had deep or infratentorial CMBs and 10 (34.5%) had strictly lobar CMBs. Hypertension, OH and a history of ischemic stroke were independently associated with deep or infratentorial CMBs, whereas antiplatelet use was independently associated with strictly lobar CMBs.

Conclusions: In patients with PD, deep or infratentorial CMBs were more frequent than strictly lobar CMBs, and were associated with hypertension, OH and a history of ischemic stroke.