Do Regions of Increased Inflammation Progress to New White Matter Hyperintensities?: A Longitudinal Positron Emission Tomography-Magnetic Resonance Imaging Study.

White matter tissue destined to develop into new WMH over the subsequent year is associated with both lower neuroinflammation, and white matter ultrastructural damage at baseline. Our results suggest that this tissue is already damaged 1 year prior to lesion formation. This may reflect that the role of neuroinflammation in the lesion development process occurs at an early stage, although more studies over a longer period would be needed to investigate this further.