Pontine infarction with pure motor hemiparesis or hemiplegia: a prospective study.
BACKGROUND
The study aimed to prospectively observe the clinical and neuroimaging features of pontine infarction with pure motor hemiparesis (PMH) or hemiplegia at early stage.


METHODS
In 118 consecutive selected patients with the first-ever ischemic stroke within 6 hours after onset, fifty of them presented with PMH or hemiplegia and had negative acute computed tomography (CT) scans, then magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) confirmed the corresponding infarcts in pons or cerebrum. The clinical and neuroimaging features of the pontine infarctions were compared with those of cerebral infarctions.


RESULTS
The pontine infarction with PMH or hemiplegia accounted for 10.2% (12/118) of all first-ever ischemic stroke patients and 24% (12/50) of the patients with both PMH or hemiplegia and acute negative CT scans. Compared to the patients with cerebral infarction, the patients with pontine infarction had more frequency of diabetes mellitus (50.0% vs 5.3%, P = 0.001), nonvertiginous dizziness at onset (58.3% vs 21.1%, P = 0.036) and a progressive course (33.3% vs 2.6%, P = 0.011).


CONCLUSIONS
The pontine infarction may present as PMH or hemiplegia with more frequency of nonvertiginous dizziness, a progressive course and diabetes mellitus. MRI can confirm the infarct location in the basal pons at early stage after stroke onset.
Ling
Li
L
Department of Neurology and Stroke Center, First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-Sen University, No, 58 Zhongshan Road 2, Guangzhou, 510080, PR China. linglirabbit@163.com
Zhu
Liangfu
L
Zeng
Jinsheng
J
Liao
Songjie
S
Zhang
Suping
S
Yu
Jian
J
Yang
Zhiyun
Z
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D005260:Female; D006429:Hemiplegia / Q000150:complications*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010291:Paresis / Q000150:complications*; D011149:Pons / Q000473:pathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods