Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) refers to a series of clinical, imaging, and pathological syndromes caused by various etiologies affecting cerebral small arteries, arterioles, capillaries, venules, and small veins. The diagnosis of CSVD mainly depends on neuroimaging, which mainly manifests as recent small subcortical infarcts, lacunar cerebral infarcts, cerebral hemorrhage, subcortical white matter lesions, iron deposits on the cortical surface, cerebral microbleeds, and microinfarcts. According to its etiologies, it could be divided into 6 groups including arteriolosclerosis, sporadic or inherited cerebral amyloid angiopathy, other inherited small vascular diseases, inflammatory and immunologically mediated small vessel diseases, venous collagenosis, and other small vessel diseases. Blood pressure control is the most effective method to prevent the occurrence and development of age-related CSVD. At present, there is insufficient evidence to confirm a significant difference of antiplatelet drugs in the treatment of ischemic CSVD and atherosclerotic large vascular disease, and a risk assessment of cerebral hemorrhage should be completed before the use of antiplatelet drugs.

Cerebral small vessel disease; Guideline; China