Enlarged perivascular spaces are associated with brain microangiopathy and aging in multiple sclerosis

Abstract

Background: Growing evidence links brain-MRI enlarged perivascular spaces (EPVS) and multiple sclerosis (MS), but their role remains unclear. Objective: This study aimed to investigate the cross-sectional associations of EPVS with several neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative features in a large multicentric-MS cohort. Methods: In total, 207 patients underwent 3T axial-T2-weighted brain-MRI for EPVS assessment (EPVS dichotomized into high/low according to ⩾ 2/< 2 rating categories). MRI biomarkers included brain-predicted age and brain-predicted age difference (brain-PAD), central vein sign (CVS)-positive lesion percentage (CVS%), paramagnetic rim and cortical lesions, T2-lesion load, and brain volumetry. The variable relative importance for EPVS-category prediction was explored using a classification random forest approach. Results: High EPVS patients were older (49 vs 44 years, p = 0.003), had ⩾ 1 vascular risk factors (VRFs; p = 0.005), lower CVS% (67% vs 78%, p < 0.001), reduced brain volumes (whole brain: 0.63 vs 0.73, p = 0.01; gray matter: 0.36 vs 0.40; p = 0.002), and older brain-predicted age (58 vs 50 years, p < 0.001). No differences were found for neuroinflammatory markers. After adjusting for age and VFRs (multivariate analyses), the high EPVS category correlated with lower CVS% (odds ratio (OR) = 0.98, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.96–0.99; p = 0.02), lower whole brain (OR = 0.01, 95% CI = 0.0003–0.5; p = 0.02), gray matter (OR = 0.0004, 95% CI = 0.0000004–0.4; p = 0.03) volumes, and higher brain-PAD (OR = 1.05, 95% CI = 1.01–1.09; p = 0.02). Random forest identified brain-PAD as the most important predictor of high EPVS. Conclusion: EPVS in MS likely reflect microangiopathic disease rather than neuroinflammation, potentially contributing to accelerated neurodegeneration.