SynthesisInternational journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society2018
Clinical significance of cerebral microbleeds on MRI: A comprehensive meta-analysis of risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, mortality, and dementia in cohort studies (v1).
Synthesis in International journal of stroke : official journal of the International Stroke Society, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04504864 (Low-dose Aspirin Therapy in Patients With Non-Cardioembolic Ischemic Stroke and Microbleeds), which is not on this map. Cited by 62 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Low-dose Aspirin Therapy in Patients With Non-Cardioembolic Ischemic Stroke and Microbleeds
Who cites it
62 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 117 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cerebral Small-Vessel Disease Markers on Magnetic Resonance Imaging as Predictors of Recurrent Vascular Events and Death in Ischemic Stroke: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2025Pooled it
- Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Clinical Outcomes of New Cerebral Microbleeds After Intravenous Thrombolysis in Acute Ischemic Stroke: a Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical neuroradiology · 2024Pooled it
- Enlarged Perivascular Spaces and Dementia: A Systematic Review.Journal of Alzheimer's disease : JAD · 2019Pooled it
- Cerebral small vessel disease and risk of incident stroke, dementia and depression, and all-cause mortality: A systematic review and meta-analysis.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Automated detection of cerebral microbleeds on ex-vivo MRI scans of community-based older adults.NeuroImage · 2026Article
- Prevalence and Risk Factors for Cerebral Microbleeds in Chinese Patients With Acute Ischemic Stroke.Brain and behavior · 2026Article
- Cognitive Impairment Predicts Adverse Outcomes in CKD.Kidney international reports · 2026Article
- Association of Multiple Plasma Metals With Cerebral Microbleeds: A Brain Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Based Study.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Drug-Induced Amyloid-Related Imaging Abnormalities: A Neurovascular Perspective on Risk Assessment.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- The Role of Leukoaraiosis and Microbleeds in Acute Ischemic Stroke Outcome Prediction.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- Cerebral microbleed patterns and the risk of incident dementia in elderly adults: The ARIC study.PloS one · 2026Article
- Deep learning-based detection of cerebral microbleeds on 2D T2*-weighted GRE MRI: toward ARIA-H risk assessment in Alzheimer's treatment.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2026Article
- Article
- Clinical Performance of Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping in Cerebral Microbleed Detection Relative to 2D GRE.Clinical neuroradiology · 2025Article
- APOE ε2 is associated with reduced risk of early post-stroke cognitive impairment but not with long-term functional outcome.BMC neurology · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a predictive model to forecast the cerebrovascular risk burden in older people using the NACC and ROSMAP dataset.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2025Article
- Principles of reversal of anticoagulation in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage related to oral anticoagulants.European stroke journal · 2025Review
- Automatic Detection and Classification of Cerebral Microbleeds Using 3D CNN.Journal of image and graphics · 2025Article
- Article
2 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
20 authors at 12 institutions in 8 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Background Cerebral microbleeds can confer a high risk of intracerebral hemorrhage, ischemic stroke, death and dementia, but estimated risks remain imprecise and often conflicting. We investigated the association between cerebral microbleeds presence and these outcomes in a large meta-analysis of all published cohorts including: ischemic stroke/TIA, memory clinic, "high risk" elderly populations, and healthy individuals in population-based studies. Methods Cohorts (with > 100 participants) that assessed cerebral microbleeds presence on MRI, with subsequent follow-up (≥3 months) were identified. The association between cerebral microbleeds and each of the outcomes (ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage, death, and dementia) was quantified using random effects models of (a) unadjusted crude odds ratios and (b) covariate-adjusted hazard rations. Results We identified 31 cohorts ( n = 20,368): 19 ischemic stroke/TIA ( n = 7672), 4 memory clinic ( n = 1957), 3 high risk elderly ( n = 1458) and 5 population-based cohorts ( n = 11,722). Cerebral microbleeds were associated with an increased risk of ischemic stroke (OR: 2.14; 95% CI: 1.58-2.89 and adj-HR: 2.09; 95% CI: 1.71-2.57), but the relative increase in future intracerebral hemorrhage risk was greater (OR: 4.65; 95% CI: 2.68-8.08 and adj-HR: 3.93; 95% CI: 2.71-5.69). Cerebral microbleeds were an independent predictor of all-cause mortality (adj-HR: 1.36; 95% CI: 1.24-1.48). In three population-based studies, cerebral microbleeds were independently associated with incident dementia (adj-HR: 1.35; 95% CI: 1.00-1.82). Results were overall consistent in analyses stratified by different populations, but with different degrees of heterogeneity. Conclusions Our meta-analysis shows that cerebral microbleeds predict an increased risk of stroke, death, and dementia and provides up-to-date effect sizes across different clinical settings. These pooled estimates can inform clinical decisions and trials, further supporting cerebral microbleeds role as biomarkers of underlying subclinical brain pathology in research and clinical settings.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.