Hemorrhagic pure sensory strokes in the thalamus and striatocapsular area: causes, clinical features and long-term outcome.
BACKGROUND
Although there have been sporadic reports of patients with hemorrhagic pure sensory strokes (HPSS) in the thalamus and striatocapsular areas, the causes, clinical featuring and long-term outcome have not been adequately investigated.


METHODS
We recruited 7 consecutive patients without hemiparetic stroke who had HPSS in the thalamic and striatocapsular areas. A CT scan was performed to verify brain imaging patterns, and their causes, clinical featuring and long-term outcome were observed.


RESULTS
We studied 7 patients who had HPSS in the thalamic and striatocapsular areas as seen in CT scans. The 7 patients had hypertension, and small hemorrhages were found in the thalamus of 2 patients and in the posterior quarter of the posterior limb of the internal capsule in 4 patients; only 1 patient had a microhemorrhage in the thalamus. The volume of the hemorrhages ranged from 0.3 to 6.3 ml, with a mean of 2.3 ± 1.9 ml. Three patients showed a decreased sense of spinothalamic modality, and position and vibration senses were spared. Four patients showed a sensory deficit of both spinothalamic and medial lemniscal type. The outcomes were excellent and without post-stroke pain in all patients.


CONCLUSIONS
HPSS in the thalamus and striatocapsular area are usually small hemorrhages or microhemorrhages from rupturing of the microvessels or the branches of small vessels. HPSS only have an impact on the adjacent sensory nucleus or pathway, and have a good outcome without post-stroke pain.
Department of Neurology, Shuyang People's Hospital, Renmin Road CB48, Shuyang, China. tongdaoming@163.com
Dao-Ming
DM
Tong
Ye-Ting
YT
Zhou
Guang-Sheng
GS
Wang
Xiao-Dong
XD
Chen
Tong-Hui
TH
Yang
Chun-Hong
CH
Chang
Yuan-Wei
YW
Wang
D000368:Aged; D002540:Cerebral Cortex / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D020300:Intracranial Hemorrhages / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012678:Sensation Disorders / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D020521:Stroke / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology*; D013788:Thalamus / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods