Clinical and MRI Features of Cerebral Small-Vessel Disease in Type 1 Diabetes

To assess the prevalence of cerebral small-vessel disease (SVD) in subjects with type 1 diabetes compared with healthy control subjects and to characterize the diabetes-related factors associated with SVD.

This substudy was cross-sectional in design and included 191 participants with type 1 diabetes and median age 40.0 years (interquartile range 33.0-45.1) and 30 healthy age- and sex-matched control subjects. All participants underwent clinical investigation and brain MRIs, assessed for cerebral SVD.

Cerebral SVD was more common in participants with type 1 diabetes than in healthy control subjects: any marker 35% vs. 10% (P = 0.005), cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) 24% vs. 3.3% (P = 0.008), white matter hyperintensities 17% vs. 6.7% (P = 0.182), and lacunes 2.1% vs. 0% (P = 1.000). Presence of CMBs was independently associated with systolic blood pressure (odds ratio 1.03 [95% CI 1.00-1.05], P = 0.035).

Cerebral SVD, CMBs in particular, is more common in young people with type 1 diabetes compared with healthy control subjects.