Abstract
Nonspecific white matter changes of different histopathological substrates are manifested as hyperintensities on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain on T2-weighted brain images and FLAIR sequences not only in patients with dementia, but also in the elderly without cognitive impairment. Their presence can be assessed using a scale system.
We introduce our simple classification of the white matter hyperintensities. We use four degrees separately for periventricular rim and microlesions and minilesions according to their size and their number.
We did not take the exact anatomical localization into account. We assessed T2-weighted brain MR images in a pilot sample of 9 patients with probable Alzheimer's disease and 9 subjects without cognitive impairment.
We observed preliminarily a similar degree of hyperintensities in both groups and the relatively good agreement between two raters. Our scale could be useful in clinical practice because of its simplicity to evaluate the extent of white matter changes on brain MR.