Talk Summary
Vascular risk factors such as hypertension are common and appear in early middle life for a substantial minority of individuals. Biomarkers of brain injury due to these factors have developed slowly over the last few decades, but are now proving extremely important given new therapeutic evidence of improvement in cognition with aggressive treatment. Data will be presented from numerous life course studies showing the impact of vascular risk factors on brain injury, how they manifest and how they may be treated to reduce the incidence of late-life cognitive impairment and transition to dementia.
Biography
Professor Charles DeCarli is the Victor and Genevieve Orsi Chair in Alzheimer’s Research and Distinguished Professor of Neurology at the University of California, Davis. His research focuses on using advanced structural and functional brain imaging to study normal aging, mild cognitive impairment, and dementia, and the role of genetics, cerebrovascular disease and Alzheimer’s disease on these processes. Professor DeCarli is one of the champions of the Healthy Brain Aging Initiative, which seeks to advance novel approaches to optimize brain health from birth.
