Clinical features of CADASIL

Cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy (CADASIL) is a rare hereditary disease characterized by recurrent transient ischemic attacks, strokes, and vascular dementia. Various mutations in the Notch3 gene cause the disease, whereas the mechanism of how they cause the disorder remains unknown. We recently identified two Japanese CADASIL families with an R141C mutation. The mean age of onset was 44.6, and the main symptoms were recurrent strokes and progressive motor disturbances in extremities, as well as pseudobulbar palsy. Besides those in white matter and basal ganglia, ischemic lesions in temporal edge and corpus callosum were present on magnetic resonance images, which seemed to be characteristic of CADASIL. Moreover, in our cases, nocturnal arterial blood pressure fall was significantly lower in patients compared with control subjects, suggesting that it might be partly associated with ischemic lesions in deep white matter in CADASIL. We also compared Japanese and Caucasian CADASIL cases and found that dementia and pseudobulbar palsy were observed more frequently in Japanese patients, although typical migraine was rather rare. In the present study, we describe the clinical features of CADASIL, hoping to help reveal the mechanism of chronic ischemic brain diseases, including leukoaraiosis or Binswanger's disease.