Pathogeneses and Imaging Features of Cerebral White Matter Lesions of Vascular Origins

White matter lesion (WML), also known as white matter hyperintensities or leukoaraiosis, was first termed in 1986 to describe the hyperintense signals on T2-weighted imaging (T2WI) and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) maps. Over the past decades, a growing body of pathophysiological findings regarding WMLs have been discovered and discussed. Currently, the generally accepted WML pathogeneses mainly include hypoxia-ischemia, endothelial dysfunction, blood-brain barrier disruption, and infiltration of inflammatory mediators or cytokines. However, none of them can explain the whole dynamics of WML formation. Herein, we primarily focus on the pathogeneses and neuroimaging features of vascular WMLs. To achieve this goal, we searched papers with any type published in PubMed from 1950 to 2020 and cross-referenced the keywords including “leukoencephalopathy”, “leukoaraiosis”, “white matter hyperintensity”, “white matter lesion”, “pathogenesis”, “pathology”, “pathophysiology”, and “neuroimaging”. Moreover, references of the selected articles were browsed and searched for additional pertinent articles. We believe this work will supply the robust references for clinicians to further understand the different WML patterns of varying vascular etiologies and thus make customized treatment.