Table 11.

Newcastle categorization of the major cerebrovascular lesions associated with cognitive impairment (modified from Kalaria et al., 2004).

VaD subtypes related to	Newcastle subtype
Large infarct or several infarcts (>50 ml loss of tissue); multi-infarct dementia	I
Multiple small or microinfarcts (>3 with minimum diameter 5 mm); small vessel disease* (involving greater than three coronal levels; hyalinization, CAA, lacunar infarcts, perivascular changes, microhemorrhages)	II
White matter lesions/leukoaraiosis/Binswanger disease
Strategic infarcts (e.g., thalamus, hippocampus, basal forebrain)	III
Cerebral hypoperfusion (hippocampal sclerosis, ischemic–anoxic damage, cortical laminar necrosis, borderzone infarcts involving three different coronal levels)	IV
Cerebral hemorrhages (lobar, intracerebral, subarachnoidal)	V
Cerebrovascular changes with Alzheimer pathology (above Braak stage III); mixed dementia (according to the author's experience stage IV would be appropriate)	VI
Combined cerebrovascular lesions

The age of the vascular lesion(s) should correspond with the time when disease began. Post-stroke cases are usually included in subtypes I–III.

^*Subtype I may result from large vessel occlusion (atherothromboembolism), artery-to-artery embolism or cardioembolism. Subtype II usually involves descriptions of arteriosclerosis, lipohyalinosis, hypertensive, arteriosclerotic, amyloid or collagen angiopathy. Subtypes I, II, and V may result from aneurysms, arterial dissections, arteriovenous malformations and various forms of vasculitis.