Neurocognitive Disorders Other Than Alzheimer Disease: Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia involves several mechanism of pathogenesis. Cerebral small vessel diseases play a central role in vascular dementia, including sporadic cerebral small vessel diseases, cerebral autosomal-dominant or autosomal recessive arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL or CARASIL), cerebral amyloid angiopathy, and amyloid β-related angiitis. Although these diseases have different pathomechanisms, chronic white matter hypoperfusion contributes to development of neuronal dysfunction as a common pathway in vascular dementia. Vascular dementia also may affect the cognitive decline observed in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.