White Matter Hyperintensities in Older Adults and Motoric Cognitive Risk Syndrome

Abstract

Introduction Motoric cognitive risk (MCR) syndrome is a recently described pre-dementia syndrome characterized by slow gait and cognitive complaints that has been implicated as a predictor of cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. Previous work suggests that cerebrovascular disease is associated with MCR. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are postulated to be a product of cerebrovascular disease, and have been associated with impaired mobility and impaired cognition. This study aimed to determine if MCR is associated with regional WMH. Methods Two cross-cultural cohorts of non-demented older adults were examined: 174 from a French memory clinic (62.1% male, mean age 70.7 ± 4.3 years) and 184 from an Indian community-dwelling cohort (55.4% male, mean age 66.2 ± 5.2 years). Participants were evaluated for slow gait, cognitive complaints, and regional WMH via MRI (fluid attenuated inversion recovery) FLAIR sequence. Results Overall, 20.7% of participants met criteria for MCR, and 72.9% of participants had WMH on FLAIR. WMH in the frontal, parieto-occipital, temporal, basal ganglia, cerebellum, or brainstem were not associated with MCR in either of the two cohorts. Conclusion WMH was not significantly associated with MCR in this studied sample of participants, suggesting that other cerebrovascular pathophysiological mechanisms, or combination of mechanisms, might underlie MCR.

Association between motoric cognitive risk syndrome and frailty among Chinese older adults

“…It was characterized by smaller volumes of total gray matter, total cortical gray matter, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex especially dorsolateral segment, but no significant differences were obtained in terms of the volumes of hippocampal and white matter [48,49], which are in concordance with these results as the two components of MCR controlling cognitive complaints and slow gait. MCR related brain regions reduction contributes to predict cortical neurodegenerative dementia more than subcortical dementia such as vascular dementia [48].…”

Association between motoric cognitive risk syndrome and frailty among Chinese older adults

“…It was characterized by smaller volumes of total gray matter, total cortical gray matter, premotor cortex, prefrontal cortex especially dorsolateral segment, but no significant differences were obtained in terms of the volumes of hippocampal and white matter [44,45], which are in concordance with these results as the two components of MCR controlling cognitive complaints and slow gait. MCR related brain regions reduction contributes to predict cortical neurodegenerative dementia more than subcortical dementia such as vascular dementia [44].…”

Association between motoric cognitive risk syndrome and frailty among older Chinese adults

“…Studies have shown that MCR involves a wider range of brain regions and that its involvement is not limited to the hippocampus, which is a key brain region for memory and spatial navigation processes [46][47][48]. MCR has been characterized by smaller volumes of total grey matter, total cortical grey matter, the premotor cortex, and the prefrontal cortex, especially the dorsolateral segment; however, no significant differences were found in terms of the volumes of hippocampal and white matter [49,50], which is in concordance with these results as these two components control cognitive complaints and slow gait. MCR-related brain region reduction contributes more to the prediction of cortical neurodegenerative dementia than that of subcortical dementia, such as vascular dementia [49].…”