Increased internal cerebral vein diameter is associated with age

A recent study described the relationship between cerebral venous diameter and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) volume. However, the adults were not further grouped; therefore, we aimed to compare across age groups and use susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) to explore whether there is also a relationship between a larger cerebral draining venous diameter and age, which could provide evidence of a temporal relationship.

We retrospectively analysed data collected from 405 subjects (90 youths, 166 middle-aged participants, and 149 elderly subjects) and respectively used T2-weighted fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) and SWI to assess WMHs and venous diameter.

An increased internal cerebral vein (ICV) diameter was associated with age in different WMH groups (F = 3.453, 10.437, 11.746, and 21.723, respectively, all p < 0.001; multiple comparisons all p < 0.05), whereas the effect of the anterior septal vein (ASV) was opposite (F = 1.046, 1.210, 0.530, and 0.078, respectively, p > 0.05). There was a positive correlation between the ICV diameter and age with increasing WMH severity (R = 0.727, 0.709, 0.754, and 0.830, respectively, all p < 0.001). A statistically significant relationship between the thalamostriate vein (TSV) diameter and age was observed only in the moderate and severe WMH groups (F = 4.070 and 3.427, respectively, all p < 0.05; multiple comparisons all p < 0.05).

Our study demonstrates that increased TSV and ICV diameters are associated with age with increasing WMH severity, especially the ICV diameter using SWI.