title: Delayed shrinkage of the brain after ischemic stroke: preliminary observations with voxel-guided morphometry.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The most important effect of cerebral ischemia is brain infarction. In this magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study, the authors aimed at assessing postischemic brain atrophy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ten patients suffering from their first acute cerebral ischemia in the territory of the middle cerebral artery were studied retrospectively. Three-dimensional MRI volume scans were recorded in the acute and chronic stage after infarction and analyzed voxel by voxel intraindividually with the newly developed voxel-guided morphometry.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Shrinkage of brain tissue was detected in all patients, not only in the perilesional cortical structures but also in contralateral homolog cortex areas and subcortically in the striatum and thalamus. This secondary shrinkage was not related to the size of the infarcts or to the clinical outcome of patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study suggests that delayed brain atrophy after acute ischemic stroke involved areas anatomically connected with the ischemic brain lesion but nevertheless was accompanied by a simultaneous improvement of the neurological deficit.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Universitätsklinikum Düsseldorf, Germany. matthias.kraemer@uni-duesseldorf.de
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kraemer
authors.forename: Thorsten
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Schormann
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Hagemann
authors.forename: Bi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Qi
authors.forename: Otto W
authors.initials: OW
authors.lastname: Witte
authors.forename: Rüdiger J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Seitz
mesh_terms: D001284:Atrophy / Q000473:pathology; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology*; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000473:pathology*; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000473:pathology*