Sleep and Cardiovascular Risk Variables Predict Perivascular Space Morphological Alterations in the Aging Brain

Motivation: Enlarged perivascular space (PVS) has been brought into attention in aging populations. However, which cardiovascular risk factors contribute to enlarged PVS are not well understood. Goal(s): This study aims to quantify PVS morphology and investigate which cardiovascular risk factors contribute the PVS deformity in aging populations. Approach: We employed random forest to predict PVS morphological changes using 9 cardiovascular risk factors and computed the importance index for all predictive factors. Results: Our findings highlighted the significant role of sleep quality, being the best predictor to PVS count, linearity, and diameter. Cardiovascular risk factors such as triglycerides best predicted PVS tortuosity. Impact: Our study is the first to investigate which cardiovascular risk factors are predictive of atypical PVS morphology. Our discovery provides valuable insights into the mechanism underlying PVS deformity and their subsequent impact on glymphatic system and cerebral vascular diseases.