What do white matter hyperintensities indicate?
Conclusion White matter hyperintensities predict an increased risk of stroke, dementia, and death. Therefore white matter hyperintensities indicate an increased risk of cerebrovascular events when identified as part of diagnostic investigations, and support their use as an intermediate marker in a research setting.
What causes white matter hyperintensities on MRI?
Incident stroke Indeed, age and hypertension are the main predictors of white matter hyperintensities,69 70 and other vascular risk factors such as smoking, diabetes, and history of vascular disease were also shown to be associated with lesions in white matter.
What does hyperintensity mean on a CT scan?
A hyperintensity is an area that appears lighter in color than the surrounding tissues; a hypointensity would be darker in color.
Is it normal to have white matter hyperintensities?
White matter hyperintensities are common in MRIs of asymptomatic individuals, and their prevalence increases with age from approximately 10% to 20% in those approximately 60 years old to close to 100% in those older than 90 years.
Is white matter disease the same as white matter hyperintensities?
When these white matter changes are seen on MRI, they are usually referred to as WMHs, or white matter lesions. WMHs are typically defined as hyperintense on proton-density, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and T2-weighted images, without prominent hypointensity on T1-weighted scans.
How common are white matter hyperintensities by age?
We found that white matter hyperintensities were common at age 45 and that white matter hyperintensity volume was modestly associated with both lower childhood (ß = -0.08, P = 0.013) and adult IQ (ß=-0.15, P < 0.001).
Can white matter lesions in the brain be nothing?
White matter lesions observed on brain MRI are usually characteristic and occur in specific areas including the corpus callosum and pons. “However, in many cases, the white matter lesions as isolated observations are nonspecific” and could be due to MS or another cause, explained Drs Lange and Melisaratos.
Do white matter hyperintensities mean MS?
Abstract. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) seen on T2WI are a hallmark of multiple sclerosis (MS) as it indicates inflammation associated with the disease. Automatic detection of the WMH can be valuable in diagnosing and monitoring of treatment effectiveness.
Can white matter disease cause death?
It is not possible to stop disease progression, and it is typically fatal within 6 months to 4 years of symptom onset. People with the juvenile form of metachromatic leukodystrophy, which develops between the age of 4 and adolescence, may live for many years after diagnosis.
What diseases cause white matter lesions?
Some examples of conditions that affect white matter include:
- MS.
- Lyme disease.
- Balo concentric sclerosis.
- tumefactive demyelinating lesions.
- Marburg and Schilder variants.
- neuromyelitis optica, or Devic’s disease.
- acute disseminated encephalomyelitis.
- acute hemorrhagic leukoencephalopathy, or Hurst disease.