World Stroke Organisation issues new scientific statement on vascular cognitive impairment

The World Stroke Organisation has published an international multidisciplinary expert scientific statement on the vascular contribution to dementia [Guidance]. It synthesises current epidemiology, sets out new “VasCog-2-WSO” diagnostic criteria, and reviews imaging and biomarker evidence and management approaches for vascular cognitive impairment — including the overlap between post-stroke cognitive impairment, cerebral small vessel disease and Alzheimer’s co-pathology.

As an international consensus statement from a recognised specialist body, this sets a current world-practice reference point for how vascular cognitive impairment should be diagnosed and managed, an area where UK memory and neuropsychology pathways have not had an equivalent recent international consensus to benchmark against.

The statement prompts a check of whether memory and neuropsychology assessment pathways adequately capture post-stroke cognitive impairment at an early stage, given the elevated cardiovascular risk profile of many frailty and stroke populations served by NHS community and secondary care.