Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI)
Vascular dementia, white matter hyperintesities, infarcts
Research aim
Our research focuses on developing and validating novel MRI markers for vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and cerebral small vessel diseases (SVD) that can help to improve diagnosis and prognostication and support personalized treatment
About us
Novel MRI markers of VCI:
Using the unique properties of high field 7T-MRI we have been able – for the first time -to detect cerebral microinfarcts in vivo. We have translated the technique to more widely available 3T-MRI, and published standards on microinfarct detection in the Lancet Neurology. Currently we use 7T-MRI to explore SVD at the level of the small vessels themselves using novel measures of small vessel structure and function. We have recently shown that several aspects of small vessel function are indeed affected in patients with SVD and relate to vascular brain injury. This opens up a new area of SVD research delving into mechanisms and offering a new platform to test treatments.
Another key area of work is the cognitive impact of vascular lesions. We explore this through 1) multicenter lesion symptom mapping studies (META VCI MAP consortium; https://metavcimap.org/ ) and 2) white matter network studies with diffusion MRI. We are generating maps that help to identify abnormal severity, spatial distribution, and cognitive impact of vascular lesions to support VCI diagnosis.