Cerebral microbleeds predict first-ever symptomatic cerebrovascular events.

Objective: Cerebral microbleeds (CMB) on gradient-echo T2*-weighted magnetic resonance image (MRI) are frequently seen in patients with cerebral diseases. In this observational study we assessed whether CMB are a predictive factor for first-ever cerebrovascular events.

Patients And Methods: This study consisted of 698 subjects without a history of symptomatic cerebrovascular events, who received gradient-echo T2*-weighted MRI for 3 months between November 2003 and January 2004 in Kishiwada City Hospital, Osaka, Japan.