Baseline Blood-Brain Barrier Leakage and Longitudinal Microstructural Tissue Damage in the Periphery of White Matter Hyperintensities.

BBB leakage at baseline is related to the 2-year change in parenchymal diffusivity in the perilesional zone of WMH. These results support the hypothesis that BBB impairment might play an early role in subsequent microstructural white matter degeneration as part of the pathophysiology of cSVD.