MANCHESTER, England, April 28 (UPI) -- Blood clots or debris from arterial disease in the brain, known as cerebral emboli, may be the key to preventing or treating dementia, says a British study.
University of Manchester researchers say Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia account for 80 percent of all dementias, but the cause is unknown.
The researchers monitored the occurrence of spontaneous cerebral emboli in 170 patients with dementia -- 85 with Alzheimer's disease, 85 with vascular dementia -- and 150 controls of the same sex and age.
Cerebral emboli were detected in 32, or 40 percent of patients, with Alzheimer's disease and 31, or 37 percent, of those with vascular dementia in only one hour of monitoring, compared with just 12 each of their controls.
The study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggests that both types of dementia have more in common than previously thought.
If spontaneous cerebral emboli are significantly associated with both Alzheimer's disease and vascular dementia, it suggests that the diseases may be preventable or treatable, according to the authors.
The findings are published in the British Medical Journal.
