Association between deep medullary veins and grey matter volume fraction in patients with cerebral small vessel...

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is a disorder of cerebral microvessels defined by clinical presentation and imaging that affects cerebral small arteries, arterioles, capillaries, and venules. Previous studies on CSVD were mainly focused on cerebral small arteries; however, there are only a few reports on the association between deep medullary veins (DMVs) and CSVD, especially the association between the number of DMVs and one of the imaging makers of CSVD-brain atrophy. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between DMVs and brain atrophy using 3.0T magnetic resonance images (MRI).

We analyzed the complete clinical and imaging data of 101 hospitalized patients diagnosed with CSVD. DMVs was identified in the periventricular area using susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI). Brain atrophy was assessed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) calculations of gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid volume fractions.

Our results showed that the number of DMVs was significantly correlated with GM fraction (β = 0.315, P = 0.019, adjusted for age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and WM fraction). We also found that with increase in CSVD burden, there was no statistically significant association between the number of DMVs and GM fraction (β = 0.071, P = 0.688, adjusted for age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and WM fraction).

Our results provide evidence that fewer DMVs are associated with a smaller GM fraction in patients with a low burden of CSVD (β = 0.604, P = 0.008, adjusted for age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and WM fraction), while the number of DMVs is associated with brain atrophy and the progression of CSVD.