Automated quantification of cerebral microbleeds in susceptibility-weighted MRI: association with vascular risk factors, white matter hyperintensity burden, and cognitive function

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: To train and validate a deep learning (DL)-based segmentation model for cerebral microbleeds (CMB) on susceptibility-weighted MRI; and to find associations between CMB, cognitive impairment, and vascular risk factors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Participants in this single-institution retrospective study underwent brain MRI to evaluate cognitive impairment between January–September 2023. For training the DL model, the nnU-Net framework was used without modifications. The DL model’s performance was evaluated on independent internal and external validation datasets. Linear regression analysis was used to find associations between log-transformed CMB numbers, cognitive function (mini-mental status examination [MMSE]), white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden, and clinical vascular risk factors (age, sex, hypertension, diabetes, lipid profiles, and body mass index).

RESULTS: Training of the DL model (n = 287) resulted in a robust segmentation performance with an average dice score of 0.73 (95% CI, 0.67–0.79) in an internal validation set, (n = 67) and modest performance in an external validation set (dice score = 0.46, 95% CI, 0.33–0.59, n = 68). In a temporally independent clinical dataset (n = 448), older age, hypertension, and WMH burden were significantly associated with CMB numbers in all distributions (total, lobar, deep, and cerebellar; all P <.01). MMSE was significantly associated with hyperlipidemia (β = 1.88, 95% CI, 0.96–2.81, P <.001), WMH burden (β = -0.17 per 1% WMH burden, 95% CI, -0.27-0.08, P <.001), and total CMB number (β = -0.01 per 1 CMB, 95% CI, -0.02-0.001, P = .04) after adjusting for age and sex.

CONCLUSIONS: The DL model showed a robust segmentation performance for CMB. In all distributions, CMB had significant positive associations with WMH burden. Increased WMH burden and CMB numbers were associated with decreased cognitive function.

ABBREVIATIONS: CMB = cerebral microbleed; DL = deep learning, DSC = dice similarity coefficient; MMSE = mini-mental status examination; SVD = small vessel disease; SWI = susceptibility-weighted image; WMH = white matter hyperintensity.