MRI evaluations for dementia typically involve ruling out or quantifying vascular disease, such as small strokes that can accumulate with aging due to factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, or normal aging.

“the typical things that we look for in an mri when evaluating for dementia a is ruling out vascular disease or quantifying the amount of it so we all get with aging some amount of tiny little strokes and i know that sounds scary but as we get older you know for various reasons high blood pressure high cholesterol smoking diabetes and even just normal aging there can be blocking of blood vessels changes in circulation that cause us to have these tiny little infarcts”