Clinical study of 227 patients with lacunar infarcts

Discrete lesions in the sensorimotor control system. A clinical-topographical study of lacunar infarcts

In 50 patients with computed tomography-verified small, deep, lacunar, infarcts from a prospective stroke registry, we studied the lesion site in relationship with the clinical syndromes pure motor stroke, sensorimotor stroke and ataxic hemiparesis. Seventy per cent (95% confidence interval: 57-83%) of the lesions were located in the posterior limb of the internal capsule or adjacent paraventricular region, affecting the corticospinal tract in pure motor stroke, as well as the thalamocortical tract in sensorimotor stroke, and the cerebellar (dentato(rubro)thalamocortical and corticopontocerebellar) pathways in ataxic hemiparesis. This most frequently involved area is supplied by the anterior choroidal artery, indicating that this artery is the predominant deep, penetrating artery involved in small vessel disease causing lacunar stroke syndromes.

Epidemiological characteristics of lacunar infarcts in a population

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE

This study evaluated the characteristics and natural history of patients with lacunar (small, deep) cerebral infarcts in a defined population for comparison of these characteristics to those in patients with nonlacunar infarcts.

METHODS

This is a population-based study in Rochester, Minnesota, from 1960 to 1984, that used the medical record-linkage system to identify and characterize patients with cerebral infarction.

RESULTS

The age- and sex-adjusted average annual incidence rate of lacunar cerebral infarction was 13.4/100,000 persons, accounting for 12% of all first cerebral infarcts. Temporal trends in incidence rates, stroke recurrence rates, prevalence of diabetes mellitus, and causes of death (given survival for 30 days) for cases of lacunar infarction were not significantly different from those for cases of nonlacunar infarction. Hypertension was found in 81% of patients who had a lacunar infarct and in 70% of patients who had a nonlacunar infarct (p = 0.05). A potential cardiac source of embolism was found in 12% of patients who had a lacunar infarct and in 28% of patients who had a nonlacunar infarct (p = 0.002). Survival was significantly better after a lacunar infarct than after a nonlacunar infarct.

CONCLUSIONS

Small, deep cerebral infarcts had many of the epidemiological characteristics of other cerebral infarcts but there was a slightly higher frequency of hypertension, significantly lower frequency of a cardiac embolic source, and significantly better survival in patients with lacunar infarction than in those with nonlacunar infarction.

An autopsy study of the incidence of lacunes in relation to age, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis

We investigated selected features of lacunes in 1,086 necropsy cases. Lacunes were found in brains from patients above the age of 40 years and were most common in brains from persons in their sixties but decreased in number in brains from older persons. The most common site of lacunes was the frontal lobe white matter, followed by the putamen, pons, parietal lobe white matter, thalamus, and caudate nucleus in descending order of frequency. By dividing the 1,086 cases into three groups according to blood pressure, we found more lacunes in the hypertensive and borderline hypertensive groups than in the normotensive group; the average number of lacunes per brain in each group was 3.61, 2.77, and 1.15, respectively. Diastolic hypertension was more closely related to the number of lacunes than was systolic hypertension. The extent of arteriolosclerosis of the medullary arteries in the frontal lobe white matter was measured and compared with the number of lacunes. There was a close correlation between lacunes and arterioloslerosis in all age groups.