Cerebral microbleeds in the population based AGES-Reykjavik study: prevalence and location.

Background And Purpose: Incidental foci of signal loss suggestive of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) are frequent findings on gradient echo T2* weighted MRI (T2* MRI) of patients with haemorrhagic or ischaemic stroke. There are few prevalence data on older populations. This paper reports on the prevalence and location of CMBs in a community based cohort of older men and women (born 1907-1935) who participated in the Age Gene/Environment Susceptibility (AGES)-Reykjavik Study, a population based cohort study that followed the Reykjavik Study

Methods: As part of the examination, all eligible and consenting cohort members underwent a full brain MRI, and blood was drawn for genotyping.