Mother's MRI notes from 4 years ago and more recent CT scans listed diffuse atrophy, 3 unruptured aneurysms in the cavernous ICAs which have progressed from 12mm to 15mm. Cerebral small vessel disease, atherosclerosis, and dolichoectasia. There's not much about that last one on the internet, except that it's more common in men. I know that SVD can sometimes progress to vascular dementia.
We have a neurologist and neurosurgeon shortage in our region so appointments are impossible to get. When I asked the primary care physician about dolichoectasia, she said "I'm not a specialist."
So I am depending on internet searches for explanations.
"The term dolichoectasia means dilated and elongated. It is used to characterize arteries that have shown a significant deterioration of their tunica intima (and occasionally the tunica media), weakening the vessel walls and causing the artery to elongate and distend."
"The tunica intima (Neo-Latin "inner coat"), or intima for short, is the innermost tunica (layer) of an artery or vein. It is made up of one layer of endothelial cells and is supported by an internal elastic lamina. The endothelial cells are in direct contact with the blood flow. Tunica intima."
Seems its very serious. Five year life span if no other problems exist.
1. Her brain, structurally, is quite broken. There is complex neurosurgery that can be done to fix aneurysms, as I understand, but no treatment currently for her small vessel or large vessel disease.
2. Her BEHAVIORS might be treatable with meds. Can you get her to a psychiatrist?
Get a new doctor who is willing to diagnose your mother. I took my mother to a geriatrician who diagnosed dementia ( her primary referred her ) . My mother went to a neurologist once after that and refused to go again .
My FIL was given a Mini Cog test while in AL and the primary that saw him there was unwilling to give him a dementia diagnosis on paper . She said to take FIL to a neurologist which he refused . Consequently he never had the diagnosis in his record . It was so stupid and created a problem everytime he was in the hospital because FIL could showtime well. He was given cognitive tests during two different hospitalizations ( showing decline from previous test ) and still No diagnosis on paper .
Every doctor just said he had to go to a neurologist . Everyone knew he had dementia but he died without it ever being in his medical record .
I would ask whoever read her scans to put it in laymans terms. Her primary doesn't have to be a specialist to find out what a term means.
Good luck finding more information.
I am wondering what the early symptoms of small vessel disease would be?