What Do White Matter Hyperintensities Really Represent?

What do white matter hyperintensities really represent?

See related article, pages 600 – 606. W hite matter hyperintensities and small, incidentally found brain infarcts are common findings on MRI, especially in old people, usually regarded as surrogates of small vessel disease. Debette and colleagues have studied the significance of such changes in upper middle-aged persons using the Framingham Offspring cohort. Volumetric brain MRI and neuropsycho...

What are White Matter Hyperintensities Made of?

1. On page 3, the right column, first full paragraph, the third sentence read, “A large multicenter study of WMH in 2699 stroke patients in 11 stroke centers in China suggested....” It has been changed to read, “A large multicenter study of WMH in 2699 stroke patients in 11 stroke centers in Korea suggested....” 2. On page 5, the left column, the third complete sentence read, “A recent very lar...

What are White Matter Hyperintensities Made of?

W hite matter hyperintensities (WMH) of presumed vascular origin, also referred to as leukoaraiosis, are a very common finding on brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or computed tomography (CT) in older subjects and in patients with stroke and dementia. They are associated with cognitive impairment, triple the risk of stroke and double the risk of dementia. Knowledge of their pathology deriv...

Structural neuroimaging in Alzheimer's disease: do white matter hyperintensities matter?

The targeted brain dysfunction that accompanies aging can have a devastating effect on cognitive and intellectual abilities. A significant proportion of older adults experience precipitous cognitive decline that negatively impacts functional activities. Such individuals meet clinical diagnostic criteria for dementia, which is commonly attributed to Alzheimer's disease (AD). Structural neuroimag...

Do white matter hyperintensities on MRI matter clinically?