Vascular Dementia

Vascular dementia is also called stroke related dementia, but may also be called multi-infarct dementia.

Vascular dementia may be caused as a result of blood clots or haemorrhaging in the brain or lack of oxygen to the brain. In some cases, there have been one or more strokes with sudden onset of unilateral paralysis or speech disorders prior to the development of dementia. In other cases, the changes to the brain occur gradually without any strokes.

The diagnosis is made on the basis of the person's medical history and the discovery of vascular changes (changes in brain tissue after blood clots or haemorrhaging) on a brain scan.

Vascular dementia makes up approximately 20 % of all cases of dementia.