Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) is a common accompaniment of ageing. Features seen on neuroimaging include recent small subcortical infarcts, lacunes, white matter hyperintensities, perivascular spaces, microbleeds, and brain atrophy. SVD can present as a stroke or cognitive decline, or can have few or no symptoms. SVD frequently coexists with neurodegenerative disease, and can exacerbate cognitive deficits, physical disabilities, and other symptoms of neurodegeneration. Terminology and definitions for imaging the features of SVD vary widely, which is also true for protocols for image acquisition and image analysis. This lack of consistency hampers progress in identifying the contribution of SVD to the pathophysiology and clinical features of common neurodegenerative diseases. We are an international working group from the Centres of Excellence in Neurodegeneration. We completed a structured process to develop definitions and imaging standards for markers and consequences of SVD. We aimed to achieve the following: first, to provide a common advisory about terms and definitions for features visible on MRI; second, to suggest minimum standards for image acquisition and analysis; third, to agree on standards for scientific reporting of changes related to SVD on neuroimaging; and fourth, to review emerging imaging methods for detection and quantification of preclinical manifestations of SVD. Our findings and recommendations apply to research studies, and can be used in the clinical setting to standardise image interpretation, acquisition, and reporting. This Position Paper summarises the main outcomes of this international effort to provide the STandards for ReportIng Vascular changes on nEuroimaging (STRIVE).

Platelet transfusion after acute spontaneous primary intracerebral haemorrhage in people taking antiplatelet therapy might reduce death or dependence by reducing the extent of the haemorrhage. We aimed to investigate whether platelet transfusion with standard care, compared with standard care alone, reduced death or dependence after intracerebral haemorrhage associated with antiplatelet therapy use. We did this multicentre, open-label, masked-endpoint, randomised trial at 60 hospitals in the Netherlands, UK, and France. We enrolled adults within 6 h of supratentorial intracerebral haemorrhage symptom onset if they had used antiplatelet therapy for at least 7 days beforehand and had a Glasgow Coma Scale score of at least 8. With use of a secure web-based system that concealed allocation and used biased coin randomisation, study collaborators randomly assigned participants (1:1; stratified by hospital and type of antiplatelet therapy) to receive either standard care or standard care with platelet transfusion within 90 min of diagnostic brain imaging. Participants and local investigators giving interventions were not masked to treatment allocation, but allocation was concealed from outcome assessors and investigators analysing data. The primary outcome was shift towards death or dependence rated on the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) at 3 months, and analysed by ordinal logistic regression, adjusted for stratification variables and the Intracerebral Haemorrhage Score. The primary analysis was done in the intention-to-treat population and safety analyses were done in the intention-to-treat and as-treated populations. This trial is registered with the Netherlands Trial Register, number NTR1303, and is now closed. Between Feb 4, 2009, and Oct 8, 2015, 41 sites enrolled 190 participants. 97 participants were randomly assigned to platelet transfusion and 93 to standard care. The odds of death or dependence at 3 months were higher in the platelet transfusion group than in the standard care group (adjusted common odds ratio 2·05, 95% CI 1·18-3·56; p=0·0114). 40 (42%) participants who received platelet transfusion had a serious adverse event during their hospital stay, as did 28 (29%) who received standard care. 23 (24%) participants assigned to platelet transfusion and 16 (17%) assigned to standard care died during hospital stay. Platelet transfusion seems inferior to standard care for people taking antiplatelet therapy before intracerebral haemorrhage. Platelet transfusion cannot be recommended for this indication in clinical practice. The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, Sanquin Blood Supply, Chest Heart and Stroke Scotland, French Ministry of Health.

Brain microbleeds (BMBs) are seen as small, homogeneous, round foci of low signal intensity on magnetic resonance imaging gradient echo (GRE) $T2*$ sequences. BMBs might only be a biomarker for microangiopathy, or alternatively BMBs might provide useful diagnostic and prognostic information, potentially with therapeutic implications for the treatment of stroke. Because of the rapid expansion in recent BMB research, we systematically reviewed and critically appraised the published literature according to QUADAS, STARD and Cochrane principles. Our selection criteria were met by 54 studies of 53 case series involving 9073 participants, 4432 of whom were people with cerebrovascular diseases. There were significant biases in many of the studies: variation in MRI magnet strength, flip angle, slice gap and slice thickness; inconsistent definitions of BMB size (23% did not define size at all, and of those that did 44% chose a diameter of ≤5 mm); only 30% included participants who were representative of the disease under study; and only 53% mentioned that BMB evaluation was blinded to other factors of interest. By pooling data from similar studies, we found that the prevalence of BMBs was 5% [95% confidence interval (CI) 4–6] in healthy adults, 34% (95% CI 31–36) in people with ischaemic stroke, and 60% (95% CI 57–64) in people with non-traumatic intracerebral haemorrhage (ICH). In the studies where a distinction could be made, BMBs were more prevalent among recurrent strokes than first-ever strokes: they affected 23% (95% CI 18–29) with first-ever ischaemic stroke but 44% (95% CI 34–54) with recurrent ischaemic stroke, and 52% (95% CI 47–56) with first-ever ICH but 83% (95% CI 71–90) with recurrent ICH. By pooling data that could be extracted from similar studies, it appears that BMBs are associated with hypertension (OR 3.9, 95% CI 2.4–6.4) and diabetes mellitus (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.2–4.2) in otherwise healthy adults, and that they are associated with hypertension (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.7–3.0) in adults with cerebrovascular diseases. The association with hypertension was robust in sensitivity analyses. There is a pressing need for better designed studies to assess the diagnostic utility of BMBs, disentangle the many likely influences on their occurrence, and determine their prognostic utility and whether they should influence treatment. We conclude by proposing criteria for ideal study design and reporting.