Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Burden Is Associated with Motor Performance of Lower and Upper Extremities in Community-Dwelling Populations

Abstract

Objective: To investigate the correlation between cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) burden and motor performance of lower and upper extremities in community-dwelling populations.Methods: We performed a cross-sectional analysis on 770 participants enrolled in the Shunyi study, which is a population-based cohort study. CSVD burden, including white matter hyperintensities (WMH), lacunes, cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), perivascular spaces (PVS), and brain atrophy were measured using 3T magnetic resonance imaging. All participants underwent quantitative motor assessment of lower and upper extremities, which included 3-m walking speed, 5-repeat chair-stand time, 10-repeat pronation–supination time, and 10-repeat finger-tapping time. Data on demographic characteristics, vascular risk factors, and cognitive functions were collected. General linear model analysis was performed to identify potential correlations between motor performance measures and imaging markers of CSVD after controlling for confounding factors.Results: For motor performance of the lower extremities, WMH was negatively associated with gait speed (standardized β = -0.092, p = 0.022) and positively associated with chair-stand time (standardized β = 0.153, p < 0.0001, surviving FDR correction). For motor performance of the upper extremities, pronation–supination time was positively associated with WMH (standardized β = 0.155, p < 0.0001, surviving FDR correction) and negatively with brain parenchymal fraction (BPF; standardized β = -0.125, p = 0.011, surviving FDR correction). Only BPF was found to be negatively associated with finger-tapping time (standardized β = -0.123, p = 0.012). However, lacunes, CMBs, or PVS were not found to be associated with motor performance of lower or upper extremities in multivariable analysis.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that cerebral microstructural changes related to CSVD may affect motor performance of both lower and upper extremities. WMH and brain atrophy are most strongly associated with motor function deterioration in community-dwelling populations.

The consequence of cerebral small vessel disease: Linking brain atrophy to motor impairment in the elderly

“…By dividing the entire population into a CSVD group and non-CSVD group, the present study found that 3-m walking and repeated chairstand performance were significantly worse in the CSVD group, highly consistent with our previous study that showed an association of WMHs (CSVD marker) with performance in these two lower extremity tasks (Su et al, 2017). These converging results strongly support a central role of WMHs or lacunes in lower motor performance of lower extremities in the elderly (Smith et al, 2015).…”

“…To address this, our previous CSVD study assessed motor performance for both lower and upper extremities and demonstrated associations of CSVD imaging markers with motor performance of both lower and upper extremities in community-dwelling populations (Su et al, 2017). To address this, our previous CSVD study assessed motor performance for both lower and upper extremities and demonstrated associations of CSVD imaging markers with motor performance of both lower and upper extremities in community-dwelling populations (Su et al, 2017).…”

“…With regard to motor performance, the majority of CSVD studies have focused on gait parameters. To address this, our previous CSVD study assessed motor performance for both lower and upper extremities and demonstrated associations of CSVD imaging markers with motor performance of both lower and upper extremities in community-dwelling populations (Su et al, 2017). Using the same cohort data, our present study further applied comprehensive analyses of brain imaging data, yielding a variety of brain morphometric measures (e.g., brain tissue volume, deep nucleus size, cortical thickness, surface area).…”

“…All subjects were from the Shunyi cohort study, an ongoing population-based study (Su et al, 2017). From June 2014 to April 2016, five villages were randomly chosen from the Shunyi district, a suburb area of Beijing.…”

“…For each participant, the motor functions of lower and upper extremities were quantitatively evaluated using 3-m walking, chair-stand, pronation-supination, and finger-tapping tests (Su et al, 2017). For details, please see the Supporting Information.…”