Association between hypertension and neurovascular inflammation in both normal-appearing white matter and white matter hyperintensities

Table 2 Neurovascular inflammation by groups and regions of interest

	Control		Individuals with hypertension		p value^a
	NAWM mean ± SD	WMH mean ± SD	NAWM mean ± SD	WMH mean ± SD	Groups (hypertension vs. control)	ROIs (WMH vs. NAWM)
Microglia (IBA1)
Frequency (#/mm²)^b	270.1 ± 233.9	382.4 ± 236.7	278.4 ± 218.0	328.7 ± 194.9	p = 0.076	p = 0.073
Area (%)	2.1 ± 2.2	2.8 ± 2.2	2.2 ± 2.2	2.5 ± 1.9	p = 0.036 *	p = 0.129
Intensity (%)	30.9 ± 1.5	34.2 ± 2.3	32.2 ± 2.2	35.4 ± 2.3	p = 0.010 *	p < 0.001 ***
Average length (µm)	24.8 ± 6.3	21.5 ± 5.4	22.2 ± 4.7	19.4 ± 3.58	p = 0.865	p = 0.014 *
Circularity [0–1]	0.37 ± 0.06	0.44 ± 0.05	0.43 ± 0.05	0.50 ± 0.06	p = 0.002 **	p < 0.001 ***
Astroglia (GFAP)
Area (%)	45.9 ± 17.1	69.1 ± 13.8	53.8 ± 27.3	69.7 ± 17.5	p = 0.005 **	p = 0.004 **
Intensity (%)	26.6 ± 1.9	32.9 ± 3.7	31.5 ± 7.9	36.4 ± 7.9	p < 0.001 ***	p = 0.012 *
Perivascular inflammation
Perivascular inflammation present (%)	96.4 ± 8.1	100.0 ± 0.0	96.3 ± 5.5	99.8 ± 0.7	p = 0.943	p = 0.030 *
Mild (%)	41.6 ± 36.9	6.5 ± 4.1	30.6 ± 28.7	7.5 ± 11.3	p = 0.017 *	p < 0.001***
Moderate (%)	50.8 ± 29.8	73.2 ± 13.1	51.8 ± 20.2	63.6 ± 16.2	p = 0.538	p = 0.018 *
Severe (%)	7.6 ± 10.3	20.3 ± 11.4	17.6 ± 23.6	28.9 ± 20.4	p = 0.002 **	p = 0.002 **
Presence of close-range perivascular inflammation (%)	8.4 ± 11.6	16.1 ± 12.6	15.9 ± 17.5	31.7 ± 24.6	p = 0.006 **	p = 0.017 *

GFAP glial fibrillary acidic protein, IBA1 ionized calcium-binding adaptor molecule 1, NAWM normal-appearing white matter, ROIs regions of interest, SD standard deviation, WMH white matter hyperintensity. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001
^a p values represent values after Bonferroni correction
^b Frequency describes the number of microglial cells per mm²

ISSN: 2051-5960