Dawson's Fingers in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease.

Aowei Lv,Yaping Yan,Ying Fu,Li Yang,Wenli Zhu,Zaiqiang Zhang

doi:10.3389/fneur.2020.00669

Abstract

To explore Dawson's fingers in cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and factors related to the development of Dawson's finger, we collected and analyzed clinical data of 65 patients with CSVD. We found a venous abnormality feature called Dawson's fingers around the ventricles in magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of 20 out of 65 patients with CSVD (30. 8%). A significant association between Dawson's fingers and diabetes mellitus (DM) was also detected (30 vs. 8.9%, P < 0.05). CSVD patients with Dawson's fingers had significantly increased cerebral microbleeds (CMB) (44.2 vs. 75.0%, p < 0.05), lacunae (66.7 vs. 95.0%, p < 0.05), and white matter hyperintensity (WMH) (p < 0.05) damage, and these patients exhibited significant cognitive domain impairment as assessed via Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (18.9 ± 1.8 vs. 24.0 ± 0.8, p < 0.05) and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) (24.5 ± 1.1 vs. 26.6 ± 0.6, p < 0.05). Our results show a distinctly high incidence of Dawson's fingers in CSVD patients and identify a significant association with DM, thus yielding insights about the appropriate use of Dawson's fingers, a venous imaging marker, to explore the basic pathophysiology of CSVD.

Highlights

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) refers to a broad class of cerebrovascular diseases that affect the small arterioles, venules, and capillaries with a variety of different causes [1, 2]
We found a venous abnormality feature identified as Dawson’s fingers around the ventricles in the magnetic resonance images (MRIs) of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) patients (Figure 1)
To determine whether there is a venous abnormality in CSVD, we collected and analyzed the clinical data of small arteriosclerotic CSVD and found a venous abnormality feature (Dawson’s fingers) around the ventricles in the MRI of 30.8% of patients

Summary

Introduction

Cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) refers to a broad class of cerebrovascular diseases that affect the small arterioles, venules, and capillaries with a variety of different causes [1, 2]. Despite its diverse pathogenesis modes, the consequences of CSVD on brain parenchyma elicit similar neuroimaging markers, including lacunes, white matter hyperintensity (WMH), enlarged perivascular space (EPVS), and cerebral microbleeds (CMB) [2]. Arteriolosclerosis is associated with the pathogenesis of sporadic CSVD, yet relatively little attention has been focused on potential roles of Dawson’s Fingers in CSVD venules in CSVD. The role of venules in the pathogenesis of CSVD, as well as the potential for use of venule abnormalities as imaging markers for diagnosing CSVD, remain unclear

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