Background: Vascular pathology is an important partner of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Both total cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) score and white matter free water (FW) are useful markers that could reflect cerebral vascular injury.
Objective: We aim to investigate the efficacy of these two metrics in predicting cognitive declines in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI).
Methods: We enrolled 126 MCI subjects with 3D T1-weighted images, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images, T2* images, diffusion tensor imaging images, cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers and neuropsychological tests from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative database. The total CSVD score and FW values were calculated. Simple and multiple linear regression analyses were applied to explore the association between vascular and cognitive impairments. Linear mixed effect models were constructed to investigate the efficacy of total CSVD score and FW on predicting cognitive decline.
Results: FW was associated with baseline cognition and could predict the decline of executive and language functions in MCI subjects, while no association was found between total CSVD score and cognitive declines.
Conclusion: FW is a promising imaging marker for investigating the effect of CSVD on AD progression.
Keywords: Cerebral small vessel disease; cognitive decline; diffusion tensor imaging; mild cognitive impairment.