School of Cardiovascular & Metabolic Health

Clinical Phenotypes Associated with Cerebral Small Vessel Disease: A study of 45,013 UK Biobank Participants

Angelina K Kancheva, Donald M Lyall, Louise Millard, Joanna M Wardlaw, Terence J Quinn

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Summary 

In this work, we build on our overview of systematic reviews associated with small vessel disease in the brain (cSVD) where we found that the clinical phenotypes associated with cSVD are diverse and include presentations across multiple body systems.

We now present the first large-scale, hypothesis-free investigation of associations between presence of cSVD and various clinical phenotypes in 45,013 UK Biobank participants. We confirmed previously reported associations with depression, apathy, falls, respiratory problems, and sleep disturbance. We also identified novel associations, including with dental, hearing, and eye problems.

We urge clinicians to approach cSVD more holistically and researchers to use comprehensive imaging and phenotypic data to allow for an increasingly more detailed description of the clinical signature of cSVD. 

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First published: 21 October 2024