Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 7 pp 9496—9509

Prevalence and risk factors for brain white matter changes in young and middle-aged participants with Brain Dock (brain screening): a registry database study and literature review

Tomohiro Yamasaki1,2, , Fusao Ikawa2,3, , Toshikazu Hidaka2, , Masashi Kuwabara2, , Shingo Matsuda2, , Iori Ozono2, , Masaaki Chiku4, , Naoyuki Kitamura5, , Tomoaki Hamano6, , Masahiro Akishita7, , Shuhei Yamaguchi8, , Hidekazu Tomimoto9, , Michiyasu Suzuki10, ,

  • 1 Postgraduate Clinical Training Center, Shimane University Hospital, Shimane, Japan
  • 2 Department of Neurosurgery, Shimane Prefectural Central Hospital, Shimane, Japan
  • 3 Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan
  • 4 Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Medical Check Studio Tokyo Ginza Clinic, Tokyo, Japan
  • 5 Department of Diagnostic Radiology, Kasumi Clinic, Hiroshima, Japan
  • 6 SmartScan, Inc., Tokyo, Japan
  • 7 Department of Geriatric Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
  • 8 Hospital Bureau of Shimane Prefecture, Shimane, Japan
  • 9 Department of Neurology, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine, Mie, Japan
  • 10 Department of Advanced ThermoNeuroBiology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine, Yamaguchi, Japan

Received: January 15, 2021       Accepted: March 26, 2021       Published: April 5, 2021      

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202933
How to Cite

Copyright: © 2021 Yamasaki et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

This study aimed to determine the prevalence and risk factors for brain white matter changes in normal young and middle-aged participants who underwent Brain Dock (brain screening). We analyzed 5,000 consecutive healthy participants from the Brain Dock registry between August to December 2018. Age, sex, body mass index (BMI), medical history, deep subcortical white matter high intensity (DSWMH), periventricular high intensity (PVH), and enlargement of perivascular space (EPVS) were investigated in relation to age. The prevalence of DSWMH, PVH, and EPVS were 35.3%, 14.0%, and 17.8%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression analyses for brain white matter changes were conducted. The significant risk factors in participants aged < 50 years were: age (OR:1.09, 95% CI:1.07-1.12), the female sex (1.29, 1.03-1.60), BMI obesity (1.86, 1.12-3.08), and hypertension (1.67, 1.18-2.35) for DSWMH; age (1.08, 1.04-1.13) and the female sex (1.56, 1.03-2.36) for PVH; and age (1.07, 1.05–1.10) and the female sex (0.77, 0.60-1.00) for EPVS. In conclusion, age was consistently identified as a significant risk factor in young and middle-aged participants. Some risk factors for brain white matter changes were identified even in young and middle-aged participants in this study. Further longitudinal studies should be done in the future.

Abbreviations

BMI: body mass index; CI: confidence interval; DSWMH: deep subcortical white matter high intensity; EPVS: enlargement of perivascular space; FLAIR: fluid-attenuated inversion recovery; MCI: mild cognitive impairment; MRI: magnetic resonance imaging; OR: odds ratio; PVH: periventricular high intensity; SSL: secure sockets layer; SVD: small vessel disease; TLS: transport layer security; VPN: virtual private network; WMH: white matter hyperintensities.