Diabetes, Prediabetes, and Brain Volumes and Subclinical Cerebrovascular Disease on MRI: The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Neurocognitive Study (ARIC-NCS).

More-severe diabetes (defined by higher HbA1c and longer disease duration) but not prediabetes or less-severe diabetes was associated with smaller brain volumes and an increased burden of brain vascular pathology. No evidence was found that associations of diabetes with smaller brain volumes are mediated by brain vascular pathology, suggesting that other mechanisms may be responsible for these associations.