Risk factors for lacune subtypes in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study

Lacunar infarctions are mainly due to 2 microvascular pathologies: lipohyalinosis and microatheroma. Little is known about risk factor differences for these subtypes. We hypothesized that diabetes and glycated hemoglobin (HbA(1)c) would be related preferentially to the lipohyalinotic subtype. We performed a cross-section analysis of the brain MRI data from 1,827 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study. We divided subcortical lesions ≤ 20 mm in diameter into those ≤ 7 mm (of probable lipohyalinotic etiology) and 8-20 mm (probably due to microatheroma) and used Poisson regression to investigate associations with the number of each type of lesion. Unlike previous studies, we also fitted a model involving lesions