Dotlike hemosiderin spots are associated with past hemorrhagic strokes in patients with lacunar infarcts.
OBJECTIVE
Dotlike hemosiderin spots ongradient-echo T2(*)-weighted magnetic resonance imaging of the brain have been histologically diagnosed as old microbleeds associated with small vessel disease (SVD). The authors hypothesize that the presence of many dotHSs may be correlated with the fragility of small vessels and the recurrence of SVD, including lacunar infarction and deep intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH).


METHODS
To investigate how dotHSs are related to past history of SVD, the number of subcortical or deep dotHSs was investigated in 146 patients with lacunar infarctions (95 men, 51 women, age 38 to 90 [66.6+/-9.4] years). They were divided into 2 subgroups according to history of deep ICHs or lacunar infarctions. The odds ratio (OR) for past history was estimated from logistic regression analyses with the number of subcortical or deep dotHSs as well as other factors.


RESULTS
Of 146 patients with lacunar infarctions, 11 had past symptomatic ICHs and 19 had past symptomatic lacunar infarctions. An elevated rate of history of ICH was found for lacunar infarction patients with many deep dotHSs (>or=3; OR, 9.1; 95% confidence interval, 1.6-51, P=.015). However, history of lacunar infarction was not significantly associated with the number of subcortical or deep dotHSs.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest that many deep dotHSs on T2(*)-weighted magnetic resonance imaging may be correlated with deep ICH-lacunar infarction type of SVD recurrence but not lacunar infarction-lacunar infarction type.
Imaizumi
Toshio
T
Department of Neurosurgery, Hakodate Municipal Hospital, Hokkaido, Japan. timaizum@d9.dion.ne.jp
Honma
Toshimi
T
Horita
Yoshifumi
Y
Iihoshi
Satoshi
S
Nomura
Tatsufumi
T
Yoshifuji
Kazuhisa
K
Niwa
Jun
J
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000150:complications; D001923:Brain Chemistry; D002198:Capillary Fragility / Q000502:physiology; D002539:Cerebral Arterial Diseases / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000378:metabolism*; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000378:metabolism*; D048909:Diabetes Complications; D005260:Female; D006485:Hemosiderin / Q000032:analysis*; D006801:Humans; D006937:Hypercholesterolemia / Q000150:complications; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012008:Recurrence; D012907:Smoking; D020521:Stroke / Q000378:metabolism*
D006485:Hemosiderin