Association between individual cerebral small vessel disease MRI markers and neuropsychological performance in amnestic mild cognitive impairment: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The association between individual SVD MRI markers and specific cognitive function remains unclear. This study investigated the association between SVD MRI markers and neuropsychological assessments in patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (MCI). METHODS: Sixty-four patients with amnestic MCI were retrospectively analyzed. Partial correlation and multiple linear regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, education, and vascular risk, were used to evaluate the associations between individual SVD MRI markers and cognitive scores. Multiple comparisons were handled using FDR correction. Sensitivity analyses were performed to assess the impact of the influential cases identified using scatter plots. RESULTS: The number of lobar CMBs showed a significant positive correlation with time in TMT-A in the total cohort (n = 64, r = 0.275, p = 0.037). This remained significant in the primary analysis (n = 63, r = 0.281, p = 0.034) but was lost in the sensitivity analysis (n = 62, p = 0.862), suggesting the influence of cases with a high lesion burden on the results. Multiple linear regression analyses showed that the number of lobar CMBs contributed to prolonged TMT-A time in the total cohort (n = 64, β = 0.266, p = 0.038) and the primary analysis (n = 63, β = 0.261, p = 0.034), but not in the sensitivity analysis (n = 62, p = 0.862). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggests that once the accumulation of lobar CMBs exceeds a certain threshold, the impact on the cognitive function (processing speed and psychomotor speed) may accelerate. Further large-scale studies are warranted to validate these findings and clarify the impact of SVD MRI markers on the cognitive profiles of patients with amnestic MCI.