Research Article
Risk Factors Association with Severity of White Matter Lesions on Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Masaaki Nemoto, Hiroyuki Masuda, Nauyuki Harada, Nobuo Sugo*, Sayaka Terazono, Yasuhiro Node, Kei Uchino, Shinichi Okonogi, Yutaka Fuchinoue, Yuki Sakaeyama and Kosuke KondoDepartment of Neurosurgery (Omori), School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Toho University, Ota-ku, Tokyo, Japan
- Corresponding Author:
- Nobuo Sugo, MD, PhD
Department of Neurosurgery (Omori)
School of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine
Toho University, 6-11-1, Omori-nishi
Ota-ku, Tokyo, 143-8541, Japan
Tel: +81-3-3762-4151
Fax: +81-3-3298-4847
E-mail: [email protected]
Received Date: May 11, 2017; Accepted Date: May 24, 2017; Published Date: May 30, 2017
Citation: Nemoto M, Masuda H, Harada H, Sugo N, Terazono S, et al. (2017) Risk Factors Association with Severity of White Matter Lesions on Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Gen Med (Los Angeles) 5:290. doi:10.4172/2327-5146.1000290
Copyright: © 2017 Nemoto M. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
| Peer-reviewed Full Article 
Abstract
Background: The objective of this study was to identify risk factors involved in the severity of deep subcortical white matter (DSWMH) and periventricular (PVH) hyper-intensities on MRI, which are white matter lesions.
Methods: The subjects were 506 consecutive asymptomatic patients examined in a brain dry-dock. The severities of DSWMH and PVH were classified using the Fazekas scale. Regarding risk factors, in addition to sex, age, cigarette smoking, alcohol drinking, and renal function, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and gout were divided into 3 grades: without the disease, being treated, or untreated, and evaluated.
Results: Regarding the normal group as grade 0 on the Fazekas scale, the relationship between the DSWMH severity and each risk factor was investigated. In addition to an increase with aging (p<0.001), the DSWMH severity increased in the order of the state of hypertension from without the disease, being treated, or untreated (p<0.01). The PVH severity increased with aging (p<0.001) and in the order of the state of diabetes mellitus from without the disease, being treated, or untreated (p<0.001).
Conclusion: Strict treatment of each disease may prevent aggravation of DSWMH and PVH, respectively, reducing incidences of stroke and dementia in the future.
