title: Embolic pontine infarction in a nonhypertensive patient following coronary angioplasty.
abstract: A 63-year-old woman was found to have decreased vibration, light touch, and proprioception sensations in the right hemi-body, following cardiac angioplasty. The patient was not hypertensive although she had a history of hypercholesterolemia and was a smoker. Magnetic resonance images of the brain demonstrated abnormal signal intensity in the left paramedian basis pons anterior to the fourth ventricle. The lesion was believed to be consistent with a lacunar infarction. Unlike this woman, the majority of patients who have a small-vessel stroke are usually diabetic or hypertensive. The interesting features here were that the stroke was a complication of coronary angioplasty, was cardioembolic to the pons, and was falsely localized to the thalamus. In addition, rarely does an embolic stroke involve a single brainstem tract.
authors.affiliation: Bowman Gray School of Medicine of Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA.
authors.forename: S W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Dibert
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Asconapé
mesh_terms: D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000009:adverse effects*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000209:etiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000150:complications; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008875:Middle Aged; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology*; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000209:etiology; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects