Autosomal dominant cerebral arteriopathy: neuropsychiatric syndrome in a family.
Though familial vascular leukoencephalopathy was described two decades ago, recent studies focus on a disorder termed Cerebral Autosomal Dominant Arteriopathy with Subcortical Infarcts and Leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL), a dominantly inherited disorder causing recurrent strokes and eventual dementia. The phenotypic boundaries of CADASIL remain indistinct and novel clinical features continue to arise in the literature. However, the associated histopathology is fairly consistent, typically demonstrating granular thickening of cerebral arterioles. The authors evaluated a 38-year-old man who suffered from progressive change in personality and intellect. His father, paternal aunt, and older sister had succumbed to a similar disorder. The authors examined relatives from three generations, including another sister with transient focal symptoms followed by persisting psychiatric disorder, and reviewed the radiographic studies from the propositus and his siblings. All the siblings showed diffuse white matter signal change on magnetic resonance imaging. Brain biopsy from the propositus revealed normal cortex and white matter but granular sclerosis of leptomeningeal arterioles. While the family's illness likely represents another instance of CADASIL, their presentation is unique because neuropsychiatric disorders predominate over focal ischemic symptoms.