Intracranial stenosis in cognitive impairment and dementia

Intracranial stenosis is a common vascular lesion observed in Asian and other non-Caucasian stroke populations. However, its role in cognitive impairment and dementia has been under-studied. We, therefore, examined the association of intracranial stenosis with cognitive impairment, dementia and their subtypes in a memory clinic case-control study, where all subjects underwent detailed neuropsychological assessment and 3 T neuroimaging including three-dimensional time-of-flight magnetic resonance angiography. Intracranial stenosis was defined as ≥50% narrowing in any of the intracranial arteries. A total of 424 subjects were recruited of whom 97 were classified as no cognitive impairment, 107 as cognitive impairment no dementia, 70 vascular cognitive impairment no dementia, 121 Alzheimer's Disease, and 30 vascular dementia. Intracranial stenosis was associated with dementia (age/gender/education - adjusted odds ratios (OR): 4.73, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.93-11.60) and vasc...