Senile cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Amyloidosis on the fingers

Arteries of the brain

Senile cerebral amyloid angiopathy

Alternative Names:

Amyloidosis - cerebral
Symptoms:

Headache (usually focal, localized to a specific part of the head)
Vomiting
Dementia (loss of cognitive ability)
Drowsiness
Neurologic changes (variable)
- May be sudden in onset
- Double vision, decreased vision
- Speech difficulties
- Confusion, delirium
- Weakness or paralysis
- Sensation changes or loss of sensation in an area
Seizures
Stupor or coma (rarely)

Signs and tests:

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An examination shows focal neurologic deficits (brain function changes) that reflect the location of the bleeding. If there is a history of dementia, lobar hemorrhage may be suspected.

A CT scan or MRI of the head shows lobar intracerebral hemorrhage. Often, MRI or CT scan will show evidence of prior bleeding episodes that may or may not have been noticed. An angiography of the brain may be used to rule out arteriovenous malformation or aneurysm as the cause of the bleed.

Senile cerebral amyloid angiopathy is not specifically diagnosed until after death, when a postmortem biopsy reveals amyloid deposits in the blood vessels of the brain.