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MRI Features and Site-specific Factors of Ischemic Changes in White Matter: A Retrospective Study

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Summary

Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the elderly often reveals white matter changes (WMCs) with substantial variability across individuals. Our study was designed to explore MRI features and site-specific factors of ischemic WMCs. Clinical data of consecutive patients diagnosed with ischemic cerebral vascular disease who had undergone brain MRI were collected and analyzed. Multi-logistic regression analysis comparing patients with mild versus severe WMCs was performed to detect independent associations. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) were used to detect regionally specific differences in lesions. We found that lesion distribution differed significantly across five cerebral areas, with lesions being predominant in the frontal lobe and parieto-occipital area. To explore WMCs risk factors, after adjusting for gender, diabetes mellitus, and hypertension, only age (P<0.01), creatinine (P=0.01), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) (P=0.01) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (P=0.03) were found to be independently associated with severe WMCs. Age (P<0.001) was strongly associated with WMCs in the frontal lobe while hypertension was independently related to lesions in the basal ganglia (P=0.048) or infratentorial area (P=0.016). In conclusion, MRI of WMCs showed that ischemic WMCs occurred mostly in the frontal lobe and parieto-occipital area. The infratentorial area was least affected by WMCs. Typically, age-related WMCs were observed in the frontal lobes, while hypertension-related WMCs tended to occur in the basal ganglia and infratentorial area.

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Author notes

  1. Both authors contributed equally to this article.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Emergency Medicine, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    You-ping Zhang

  2. Department of Neurology, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Na Liu, Chao Pan, Xuan Cai, Zhou-ping Tang & Sha-bei Xu

  3. Department of Radiology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430030, China

    Kai-yan Liu

  4. Department of Neurology, Luoyang Central Hospital, Zhengzhou University, Luoyang, 471000, China

    Shi-qi Yang

Authors
  1. You-ping Zhang
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  2. Na Liu
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  3. Kai-yan Liu
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  4. Chao Pan
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  5. Xuan Cai
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  6. Shi-qi Yang
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  7. Zhou-ping Tang
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  8. Sha-bei Xu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sha-bei Xu.

Additional information

This work was supported by grants from Scientific Research Project of Health and Family Planning of Hubei Province (No. WJ2015MB056), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (No. 2015CFB572), and Clinical Research Physician Program of Tongji Medical College, HUST.

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Zhang, Yp., Liu, N., Liu, Ky. et al. MRI Features and Site-specific Factors of Ischemic Changes in White Matter: A Retrospective Study. CURR MED SCI 38, 318–323 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-018-1881-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11596-018-1881-6

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