Presence of one or more chronic cerebral infarctions of any size (micro and gross infarcts) as determined by neuropathologic evaluations performed at Rush, blinded to clinical data, and reviewed by a board-certified neuropathologist.

A minimum of nine regions in one hemisphere are examined for cerebral infarcts on 6µm paraffin-embedded sections, stained with hematoxylin/eosin. We examine six cortical regions (midfrontal, middle temporal, entorhinal, hippocampal, inferior parietal, and anterior cingulate cortices), two subcortical regions (anterior basal ganglia, thalamus), and midbrain. Age (acute/subacute/chronic) and location (side and region) of infarcts are recorded.