Relationship between carotid arterial properties and cerebral white matter hyperintensities

No clue what this means. I was told I had a bunch of white matter hyperintensities, never was told anything about my carotid stiffness.
https://www.mdlinx.com/internal-medicine/medical-news-article/2017/05/05/carotid-arterial-properties-cerebral-white-matter/7151805/?

Neurology®

Rundek T, et al.

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In a cross–sectional study, the physicians aimed to investigate the association of carotid artery stiffness with white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV) since arterial stiffness is a functional measure of arterial compliance and may be an important marker of cerebrovascular disease. In this multiethnic population, large carotid artery diameters are associated with the greater burden of white matter hyperintensity (WMH). Among Hispanics, the association between increased diameters decreased STRAIN, and greater WMH burden is more pronounced. These relationships imply a potential important pathophysiologic role of extracranial large artery remodeling in the burden of WMH.

Methods

• The physicians enrolled 1,166 stroke–free participants. (so useless information for stroke survivors)
• They evaluated carotid beta stiffness index (STIFF) by M-mode ultrasound of the common carotid artery and calculated as the ratio of the natural log of the difference between systolic and diastolic blood pressure over STRAIN, a ratio of the difference between carotid systolic and diastolic diameter (DD) divided by DD.
• They measured WMHV by fluid-attenuated inversion recovery MRI.
• They examined the associations of STIFF, DD, and STRAIN with WMHV using linear regression after adjusting for sociodemographic, lifestyle, and vascular risk factors.

Results

• Larger carotid DD was significantly associated with greater log-WMHV (β = 0.09, p = 0.001) in a fully adjusted model.
• As per the outcomes, STIFF and STRAIN were not significantly correlated with WMHV.
• Among Hispanic participants, STRAIN (β = -1.78, p = 0.002) and DD (β = 0.11, p = 0.001) were both associated with greater log-WMHV, but not among black or white participants in adjusted analyses stratified by race–ethnicity.