title: Clinical and radiologic features of lacunar versus nonlacunar minor stroke.
abstract: We determined the angiographic presence of extracerebral and intracerebral arterial disease in 122 patients with minor stroke within the carotid territory; we excluded patients with a recognized cardiac source of emboli. Based on clinical features and computed tomographic findings, patients were classified as having lacunar infarcts (n = 61), nonlacunar infarcts (n = 53), and infarcts of indeterminate type (n = 8). Severe carotid bifurcation disease (greater than or equal to 50% stenosis or occlusion) was significantly more common in nonlacunar than in lacunar infarcts, on both the ipsilateral (p less than 0.001) and the contralateral (p less than 0.01) sides; 79% of the patients with nonlacunar infarcts had severe carotid bifurcation and/or middle cerebral artery disease on the ipsilateral side compared with 3.3% of the patients with lacunar infarcts. Our data underscore the need for classification of patients by the underlying mechanisms in future studies of treatment of ischemic stroke.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University Hospital, Lund, Sweden.
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Norrving
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cronqvist
mesh_terms: D002533:Cerebral Angiography; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000503:physiopathology; D002561:Cerebrovascular Disorders / Q000145:classification / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D009422:Nervous System Diseases / Q000209:etiology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014786:Vision Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D014794:Visual Fields