ALB and carotid atherosclerosis: After adjusting for confounding factors, the analysis revealed that nine variables (Gender, Age, Stroke, Carotid Atherosclerosis, Hypertension, Creatinine, Lipoprotein(a), Albumin to Globulin Ratio, and Homocysteine) were significantly associated with the risk of cerebral small vessel disease (P < 0.05), as shown in Table 3.