Incidental White Matter Lesions Identified on Magnetic Resonance Images of Normal Japanese Individuals

—Correlation with Age and Hypertension—

Abstract

Incidental white matter high-intensity lesions are frequently seen on T₂-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) images of the brain in older people. The incidence increases with advancing age or hypertension. Brain MR images of 59 normal individuals were examined to analyze this phenomenon. The total number of white matter high-intensity lesions correlated significantly with age (p = 0.004) or systolic blood pressure (p = 0.03). The 60- to 69-year-old group demonstrated a very close correlation of white matter lesions with systolic (p = 0.02) and diastolic blood pressure (p = 0.01), in contrast to the 50- to 59-year-old group. Hypertensive subjects in their 60s are thought to develop more white matter lesions than subjects in their 50s.