Maillard, Pauline; Hillmer, Laura J; Lu, Hanzhang; Arfanakis, Konstantinos; Gold, Brian T; Bauer, Christopher E; Kramer, Joel H; Staffaroni, Adam M; Stables, Lara; Wang, Danny JJ; Seshadri, Sudha; Satizabal, Claudia L; Beiser, Alexa; Habes, Mohamad; Fornage, Myriam; Mosley, Thomas H; Rosenberg, Gary A; Singh, Baljeet; Singh, Herpreet; Schwab, Kristin; Helmer, Karl G; Greenberg, Steven M; DeCarli, Charles; Caprihan, Arvind

doi:10.1002/dad2.12362

Download PDF

MRI free water as a biomarker for cognitive performance: Validation in the MarkVCID consortium

Published Web Location

https://doi.org/10.1002/dad2.12362

Abstract

Introduction

To evaluate the clinical validity of free water (FW), a diffusion tensor imaging-based biomarker kit proposed by the MarkVCID consortium, by investigating the association between mean FW (mFW) and executive function.

Methods

Baseline mFW was related to a baseline composite measure of executive function (EFC), adjusting for relevant covariates, in three MarkVCID sub-cohorts, and replicated in five, large, independent legacy cohorts. In addition, we tested whether baseline mFW predicted accelerated EFC score decline (mean follow-up time: 1.29 years).

Results

Higher mFW was found to be associated with lower EFC scores in MarkVCID legacy and sub-cohorts (p-values < 0.05). In addition, higher baseline mFW was associated significantly with accelerated decline in EFC scores (p = 0.0026).

Discussion

mFW is a sensitive biomarker of cognitive decline, providing a strong clinical rational for its use as a marker of white matter (WM) injury in multi-site observational studies and clinical trials of vascular cognitive impairment and dementia (VCID).

Many UC-authored scholarly publications are freely available on this site because of the UC's open access policies. Let us know how this access is important for you.

Main Content

For improved accessibility of PDF content, download the file to your device.

UC Davis