Guan Shuai, Kong Xiangyu, Duan Shifei, Ren Qingguo, Huang Zhaodi, Li Ye, Wang Wei, Gong Gaolang, Meng Xiangshui, Ma Xiangxing
Department of Radiology, Qilu Hospital (Qingdao), Cheeloo College of Medicine, Shandong University, Qingdao, China.
State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning and IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
Front Aging Neurosci. 2021 Aug 16;13:715434. doi: 10.3389/fnagi.2021.715434. eCollection 2021.
White matter hyperintensity (WMH) is common in healthy adults in their 60s and can be seen as early as in their 30s and 40s. Alterations in the brain structural and functional profiles in adults with WMH have been repeatedly studied but with a focus on late-stage WMH. To date, structural and functional MRI profiles during the very early stage of WMH remain largely unexplored. To address this, we investigated multimodal MRI (structural, diffusion, and resting-state functional MRI) profiles of community-dwelling asymptomatic adults with very early-stage WMH relative to age-, sex-, and education-matched non-WMH controls. The comparative results showed significant age-related and age-independent changes in structural MRI-based morphometric measures and resting-state fMRI-based measures in a set of specific gray matter (GM) regions but no global white matter changes. The observed structural and functional anomalies in specific GM regions in community-dwelling asymptomatic adults with very early-stage WMH provide novel data regarding very early-stage WMH and enhance understanding of the pathogenesis of WMH.
白质高信号（WMH）在60多岁的健康成年人中很常见，早在30多岁和40多岁时就可以出现。患有WMH的成年人脑结构和功能特征的改变已被反复研究，但重点是晚期WMH。迄今为止，WMH极早期阶段的结构和功能MRI特征在很大程度上仍未被探索。为了解决这个问题，我们研究了社区居住的无症状成年人极早期WMH相对于年龄、性别和教育程度匹配的非WMH对照的多模态MRI（结构、扩散和静息态功能MRI）特征。比较结果显示，在一组特定的灰质（GM）区域中，基于结构MRI的形态学测量和基于静息态功能MRI的测量存在显著的年龄相关和年龄无关变化，但没有整体白质变化。在社区居住的无症状成年人极早期WMH的特定GM区域中观察到的结构和功能异常提供了关于极早期WMH的新数据，并增强了对WMH发病机制的理解。
