Association between serum total bilirubin level and leukoaraiosis in Korean adults.

leukoaraiosis - white matter disease is a term for changes in the cerebral white matter that can be detected with high frequency by CT and MRI in aged individuals.
It is also commonly referred to as white matter hyperintensities (WMH) due to its bright white appearance on T2 MRI scans.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22245549

Abstract

OBJECTIVES:

Leukoaraiosis is associated with cerebrovascular microangiopathy. Increasing evidence suggests that bilirubin is a potent cytoprotectant in the development of cardiovascular diseases. This study aimed to determine whether total bilirubin is related to leukoaraiosis.

METHODS:

We examined the relationship of total bilirubin with leukoaraiosis in 1331 Korean adults. The odds ratios for leukoaraiosis were calculated using multivariate logistic regression across serum total bilirubin tertiles.

RESULTS:

In comparison with the subjects in the reference group (total bilirubin: 15-26μmol/L), the odds ratio (95% CI) for leukoaraiosis in the 3rd tertile (total bilirubin ≤10μmol/L) was 5.50 (1.24-24.40) in women after adjusting for confounding variables. However, this inverse association between serum total bilirubin and the prevalence of leukoaraiosis was not found in men after adjusting for the same co-variables.

CONCLUSION:

Total bilirubin level was inversely associated with leukoaraiosis regardless of classical cardiovascular risk factors in Korean women.

Ok, so what should we research next? Raising the bilirubin level?