Brain Vascular Damage
Working to improve outcomes for patients undergoing neurological treatment
Brain vascular damage, such as brain swelling and bleeding, is a potential side effect associated with patients undergoing neurological treatment, and can also occur in stroke and other neurological conditions.
For patients undergoing anti-Aβ drug treatment, this side effect is called amyloid-related imaging abnormality (ARIA). The recent development and availability of Alzheimer’s disease therapies has resulted in a large unmet need for blood-based ARIA diagnostics that physicians can regularly use to diagnose and monitor for these side effects.
ARIA is associated with the accumulation and clearance of aggregated proteins, and has two subtypes:
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ARIA-E (edema): Involves brain swelling or edema, potentially causing symptoms such as headache and confusion.
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ARIA-H (microhemorrhages): Includes small bleeds or microhemorrhages in the brain, which may or may not result in symptoms.
Detection and monitoring of brain vascular damage is critical to a patient’s overall health and outcomes when being treated for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological diseases. If undetected and unaddressed, it can lead to serious and life-threatening complications, including seizures, hemorrhages and, in rare cases, death.
Currently, brain vascular damage can only be detected and monitored through brain imaging with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), in which a physician may choose to adjust dosing or stop treatment. However, MRI monitoring comes with limitations:
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Brain MRIs are expensive, time intensive and inaccessible as not every hospital or physician’s office owns one.
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Patients are often treated only when symptomatic, and they frequently wait up to a month or longer to schedule an MRI scan.
