Cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD) is a group of pathological processes affecting the small vessels of the brain. It is responsible for 25% of all strokes and it is the second most common cause of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.
Although small vessel alterations are not detectable with current neuroimaging methods, it is possible to identify lesions caused by cSVD, such as white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), lacunar infarctions, enlarged perivascular spaces, and brain atrophy. In most cases, these radiological markers do not result in overt clinical symptoms; nevertheless, the prognostic relevance of some of these radiological markers is well established: their presence doubles the risk of stroke and increases the risk of dementia and death in the general population.
cSVD pathogenesis is not yet completely understood, there is a lack of treatments targeting cSVD pathogenesis, and several genetic association studies have so far failed to demonstrate a convincing association between cSVD and genetic variants. Nonetheless, considering that monogenic disorders constitute up to 5% of all strokes, genetic investigation of rare familial cSVD syndromes is still a promising approach to understand and discover novel treatments for cSVD.

This Research Topic is addressed to the entire stroke research community, in order to gain a broader knowledge of cSVD: from the perspective of the biologist to that of the hospital emergency physician. The aim of this Research Topic is to enhance the understanding of the biological pathway underlying cSVD and the clinical aspects of its manifestation, therapeutic approaches, primary and secondary prevention strategies, and the clinical evolution of the disease over time. The overall purpose of this sharing and collection of different experiences is to reduce the major impact of cSVD on the population. This Research Topic will include basic research, animal models and human studies with clinical trials or experimental design regarding SVD. We will also consider review papers.

We welcome the submission of any type of manuscript supported by the journal (original research, brief research reports, case reports, review, mini-review, methods, perspective, opinion articles, etc.) that focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics. However, we encourage the submission of any SVD-related manuscript that goes beyond the scope of the following examples:
- Diagnostic biomarkers of stroke and hemorrhage in cSVD
- Prognostic biomarkers of stroke and hemorrhage in cSVD
- Small vessel disease neuroimaging
- Signs and symptoms of small vessel disease
- Acute care of small vessel disease
- Management and follow-up of cSVD
- Precision medicine in cSVD diagnosis and treatment
- Primary and secondary prevention in cSVD
- Small vessel pathophysiology
- Small vessel disease animal models

Dr. Afshin Divani is a co-inventor of patents on: a head cooling apparatus (US 20130325089 A1), an angioplasty device (US 7,318,815 B2), a monitoring system of endotracheal tube placement (US 7,543,586 B2), a funnel catheter device (US 20050159770 A1), a cardiac compression device (US 20030144682), and a gas delivery apparatus for gas-column angioscopy (US 20030088210 A1). The other Topic Editors declare no competing interests with regard to the Research Topic subject.

Impact

Frontiers in Stroke

Population Health and Risk Factors of Stroke

Other participating journals

Frontiers in Neurology

Stroke