In the most recent of these studies that leveraged large-scale data from international consortia, a locus at 2q33 showed pairwise associations between urinary albumin:creatinine ratio and both small vessel stroke and white matter hyperintensities (WMH), indicating that 2q33 may play a role across small vessel pathologies in both the kidney and brain through microalbuminuria, small vessel stroke, and WMH, and that there may be a shared common pathway among cerebral and renal manifestations of small vessel disease (114). This evidence concerns the gene ALB and small vessel stroke.