When separating the total volume of WMH into PVWMH and DWMH, for the annual decrease in CBF, there was an increasing trend in PVWMH volume (Model 1: coefficient =−0.26, 95% CI: −0.049 to −0.003; P=0.029; Model 2: coefficient =−0.24, 95% CI: −0.046 to −0.002; P=0.032; Model 3: coefficient =−0.23, 95% CI: −0.047 to 0.002; P=0.074), whereas this increasing trend was not found in DWMH volume (all P>0.05).
At baseline, there was a decreasing trend in gray matter (GM) CBF with an increase of WMH burden (P=0.063), but this association was attenuated after adjusting for age (P=0.362).
In the linear regression for analyzing the associations between CBF and log(WMH) ( Table 2 ), there was a decreasing trend of GM CBF, and the increase in WMH volume did not reach statistical significance (Model 1: B=−0.010, 95% CI: −0.020 to 0.001; P=0.063) after partial volume correction.