Impact of Susceptibility Weighted MRI Sequences in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease

Abstract

Background: Brain microvascular disease (CSVD) is a multifactorial condition affecting the brain's arterioles, venules, capillaries, and microscopic arteries. Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is a fully velocity-compensated high-resolution 3D gradient-echo sequence that creates new contrast sources using magnitude and filtered-phase data. This study aimed to weighed MRI sequences for CSVD susceptibility evaluation. Methods: SVD patients with CSVD were studied in this prospective observational study. Every patient had a comprehensive clinical evaluation, routine laboratory testing, susceptibility weighted MRI (SWI), and determination of the plasma atherogenic index. Results: The stroke-to-MRI time was longer in patients with one or more vascular clusters (P=0.028). Radiological investigation revealed no significant difference in WMH scores, however patients with vascular clusters had bigger lacunes, PVH + DWMH Fazekas score, basal ganglia + centrum semiovale PVS score, and overall PVS score (P<0.05). In multivariate logistic regression, the only significant predictors of vessel-clusters were age, male sex, and lacune amount. Conclusion: It seems that vascular clusters might be useful in risk stratification and individualised treatment for lacunar stroke. To find out how vessel-clusters impact clinical outcomes over time, further research is required.