RADAR-WMH: Relaxometry And Diffusion Analysis beyond Radiologically defined WMH

RADAR-WMH is a new machine learning system that analyzes white matter brain damage using MRI without requiring standard FLAIR sequences. The system was trained on data from 148 participants with a mean age of 59.6 years (60.8% women) and achieved comparable accuracy to traditional methods. RADAR-WMH identified brain tissue damage even outside visible lesions, including myelin loss and axonal injury. These microstructural changes were more strongly associated with age, blood pressure, and cognitive performance than changes visible on standard MRI scans. The research suggests that RADAR-WMH may be a more sensitive tool for detecting cerebral small vessel disease than traditional methods.