Baseline demographics and MRI volumes, stratified by the WMH progression threshold of ≥1.4 mL vs <1.4 mL
| Variable | Full cohort (N=433) | WMH progression ≥1.4 mL (n=156) | WMH progression <1.4 mL (n=277) | P value* |
| Age | 67.3±7.8 | 69.7±8.0 | 65.9±7.3 | <0.001 |
| Male sex | 272 (62.8%) | 90 (57.7%) | 182 (65.7%) | 0.098 |
| Race/ethnicity | 0.730 | |||
| White | 277 (64.0%) | 97 (62.2%) | 180 (65.0%) | |
| Black | 132 (30.5%) | 52 (33.3%) | 80 (28.9%) | |
| Hispanic | 20 (4.6%) | 6 (3.9%) | 14 (5.1%) | |
| Other | 4 (0.9%) | 1 (0.6%) | 3 (1.1) | |
| History of cardiovascular disease | 50 (11.6%) | 25 (16.0%) | 25 (9.0%) | 0.029 |
| History of diabetes | 9 (2.1%) | 5 (3.2%) | 4 (1.4%) | 0.294 |
| History of peripheral vascular disease | 24 (5.5%) | 7 (4.5%) | 17 (6.1%) | 0.471 |
| History of atrial fibrillation | 29 (6.7%) | 10 (6.4%) | 19 (6.9%) | 0.858 |
| Smoking (n=432) | 0.050 | |||
| Never | 197 (45.6%) | 59 (37.8%) | 138 (50.0%) | |
| Past | 180 (41.7%) | 75 (48.1%) | 105 (38.0%) | |
| Current | 55 (12.7%) | 22 (14.1%) | 33 (12.0%) | |
| Alcoholism | 10 (2.3%) | 3 (1.9%) | 7 (2.5%) | 1.000 |
| Vigorous phsycial activities | 0.817 | |||
| ≤1 /week | 219 (50.6%) | 82 (52.6%) | 137 (49.5%) | |
| 1–4/week | 152 (35.1%) | 53 (34.0%) | 99 (35.7%) | |
| ≥5 /week | 62 (14.3%) | 21 (13.4%) | 41 (14.8%) | |
| Aspirin use | 217 (50.1%) | 85 (54.5%) | 132 (47.7%) | 0.172 |
| Retired | 250 (57.7%) | 100 (64.1%) | 150 (54.2%) | 0.044 |
| Education | 0.042 | |||
| <College or other | 250 (57.7%) | 101 (64.7%) | 149 (53.8%) | |
| College | 69 (16.0%) | 17 (10.9%) | 52 (18.9%) | |
| Graduate school | 114 (26.3%) | 38 (24.4%) | 76 (27.4%) | |
| Randomised to intensive blood pressure reduction | 241 (55.7%) | 73 (46.8%) | 168 (60.7%) | 0.005 |
| Baseline WMH volume (mL) | 5.8±7.4 | 9.7±9.3 | 3.6±4.9 | <0.001 |
| Baseline total intracranial volume (mL) | 1391±144 | 1397±146 | 1388±143 | 0.558 |
*P value shown for comparison between WMH progression stratification and calculated with Student’s t-test for interval variables and the χ2 or Fisher’s exact test for binary variables, depending on frequency; interval variables shown as mean±SD and binary variables as n (%).
WMH, white matter hyperintensity.