The triglyceride glucose index is associated with the cerebral small vessel disease in a memory clinic population

Insulin resistance (IR) has been associated with the cerebral small vessel disease (cSVD). However, as the surrogate marker of IR, there is little known about the relationship between the triglyceride glucose (TyG) index and cSVD. In this cross-sectional study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the TyG index and cSVD in a memory clinic population and explore the value of TyG index to improve the risk stratification of cSVD.

We included participants who attended our memory clinic from January 2016 to December 2020. TyG index was determined as ln [fasting triglyceride (mg/dL) × fasting plasma glucose (mg/dL)/2]. We assessed lacunes, microbleeds, white matter hyperintensity (WMH) and enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS) on MRI and calculated the total cSVD burden.

A total of 297 subjects were included (median age: 65 years, male sex: 64.98%). In the adjusted model, when dividing TyG index into quartiles, subjects with TyG index in the top quartile, compared with those in the bottom quartile, were more likely to have lacunes (P = 0.035), moderate-severe WMH (P = 0.001), a higher grade of deep WMH (P = 0.004), a higher grade of PVWMH (P = 0.032), a higher grade of EPVS (P = 0.002), and a higher cSVD score (P < 0.001). When introducing TyG index into traditional risk factors to predict moderate to severe cSVD, both area under the curve (0.745 vs 0.802, P = 0.003) and integrated discrimination index (0.080, 95% CI 0.050-0.110, P < 0.001) displayed an improvement from TyG index.

The TyG index is correlated with cSVD and may have the potential to be a surrogate marker of insulin resistance and optimize the risk stratification.