Cognitive Impairment, Retinopathy, and Cerebrovascular Lesions in the Elderly

The CIRCLE study is a single-center prospective observational study that enrolled individuals with cerebral small vessel disease (SVD), while free of known dementia or stroke (both cerebral infarction and hemorrhage). The patients will receive neuropsychological testing, retinal digital images and multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Blood samples will also be collected. Recent small subcortical infarcts, lacunes, white matter hyperintensities, perivascular spaces, microbleeds, and brain atrophy will be evaluated on both baseline and follow-up brain MRIs. The investigators will explore the predictors of preogression of SVD and cognitive deficits.