Evaluating regional and global diffusion measures as biomarkers for vascular contributions to cognitive impairment and dementia.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Diffusion MRI (dMRI) has been proposed for quantifying early tissue changes in cerebral small vessel disease (SVD). We evaluated the regional dependance of predictors of white matter (WM) damage and compared the utility of longitudinal WM changes in the commonly available diffusion MRI measures for vascular contribution to cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID) prevention trials.

Methods

We included 718 participants (mean age: 71.1(9.6) years, 56 % males) with at least two dMRI scans, amyloid-PET, and structural imaging. We computed single-shell dMRI measures (fractional anisotropy, mean diffusivity, free water, peak-width skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD) and assessed: i) regional dependance of predictors of baseline WM damage using voxel-level analyses; ii)

SUBMITTER: Raghavan S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12810337 | biostudies-literature | 2026

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature