JNNP: Incidence and 5 risk factors of white matter hyperintensity progression

On MRI examination of WMH (WMHs) increase with the age of the patient, in stroke patients, especially in the cerebral small blood vessels become very common disease (SVD) patients
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Cerebral white matter hyperintensity is a magnetic resonance imaging phenotype of cerebral small vessel disease, which appears as diffusion or fusion of white matter under the cerebral cortex

Because of the clinical relevance of WMHs and the results that can be obtained by magnetic resonance, WMHs are increasingly used as clinical treatment effect markers in SVD and dementia treatment experiments

First look for studies that conduct longitudinal evaluation of WMHs

Research flow chart

The WMH progression measured by T2-weighted imaging can be extracted or calculated from the percentage of total brain volume and normalized to the rate of expansion of cubic centimeters per year (cc/year)
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According to the research population, the research is divided into community cohorts and specific disease groups: namely SVD, stroke, dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI), depression/mood disorder or non-specific cardiovascular disease (CVD)

Histogram of WMH lesion progression (cc/year)

Initial search results were 924 publications, and the last 206 studies were included in this study
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SVD patients have the highest WMH growth rate (2.

Bubble chart of WMH progress and baseline volume

In summary, the results of the study indicate that age, stroke, especially SVD , hypertension, and smoking are all risk factors for the progression of WMHs