The increasing prevalence of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) underscores the critical need for innovative non-pharmacological strategies. This retrospective comparative case series evaluated the effects of classical music therapy, Qur’anic recitation, and their combination on cognitive function and religious engagement in 7 patients with VCI due to rare disorders, including vasculitis related to systemic lupus erythematosus and Balint syndrome. Assessments included brain magnetic resonance imaging, the Indonesian version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, the dementia solat score, and C-reactive protein levels. Patients who received only Qur’anic recitation demonstrated the most significant improvement in cognitive function and religious engagement. The findings suggest that Qur’anic recitation therapy has yielded superior results despite potential sound wave conflicts. Future studies with larger samples are required to validate these findings and explore further non-pharmacological interventions for VCI.
cognitive dysfunction ; music therapy ; religion

Purpose: Spontaneous cervicocephalic dissection (SCAD) is an important cause of stroke and shows various lesion locations and clinical features. The purpose of this study was to analyze the location of SCAD and its clinical and radiologic patterns in Korean patients. Materials and Methods: Patients with SCAD who were evaluated between 2013 and 2018 at a tertiary center in Korea were reviewed. We classified and compared the morphological (aneurysm or steno-occlusion) and presenting (hemorrhage or infarction) patterns according to the lesion locations (anterior circulation [AC] vs. posterior circulation [PC]; intradural [ID] vs. extradural [ED]). Results: A total of 166 patients were included in this study. The SCAD most commonly occurred in the PC-ID location (65.1%), followed by AC-ID (13.3%), AC-ED (13.3%), and PC-ED (8.4%). Aneurysm and steno-occlusion patterns were observed in 66.9% and 57.8% of the cases, respectively. The aneurysm pattern was significantly more common in the PC-ID location (78.7%) than in other locations. As for the presenting pattern, cerebral infarction was the most common pattern (39.8%), and intracranial hemorrhage was observed only in the ID location (7.2%). Conclusion In Korean patients, PC-ID, especially ID vertebral artery, was the most common location of SCAD, and most cases were accompanied by an aneurysm. It also suggested that these location trends differ by population or ethnicity.