Purpose. Etiology and pathogenesis of age-related small vessel disease (SVD) are currently being actively reviewed and supplemented, with more evidence that disease affects not only the arteries of the brain, but also brain venous system. The purpose of this study is a comprehensive assessment of changes in venous blood flow by phase-contrast MRI during SVD progression and their relationship with MR manifestations of diseases.

Material and methods. The study was carried out in 96 patients with SVD (aged 60.91 ± 6.57 years) and 23 healthy volunteers (59.13 ± 6.56 years). The protocol of the MRI examination included routine MRI sequences (T2, FLAIR, T1, SWI, DWI) applied to assess the severity of brain damage according to STRIVE advisory standards and PC-MRI used to quantify venous blood flow in the internal jugular veins, the straight and upper sagittal sinuses. Venous volume was also calculated based on SWI analysis. We analyzed the associations between parameters of blood flow and the degree of brain matter damage using the Fazekas scale.

Results. We observed a reduction in снижение ijVBF, sssVBF, stVBF associated with WMH progression, as well as a gradual decline in sssVBF and stVBF associated with juxtacortical microbleeds, a growing number of lacunes and perivascular spaces enlargement (р < 0.05). An inverse relationship is also established between stVBF and deep veins volume, sssVBF and superficial veins volume (р < 0.05).