title: Interhemispheric Asymmetry in Distribution of Infarct Lesions among Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients Presenting to Hospital.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This study aimed to investigate the possible asymmetric distribution of acute ischemic infarct lesions between patients with right-sided stroke versus left-sided stroke.
  
  
  METHODS
  Acute ischemic stroke patients with unilateral infarct who underwent magnetic resonance imaging scan within 24 hours of onset were included. Infarct lesions were segmented on diffusion-weighted-imaging series and coregistered on the MNI-152 brain map. After flipping all lesions to the left side, voxel-based analysis was performed to evaluate for asymmetric distribution of infarct lesions using the stroke side as an independent variable. Symptom severity at admission was evaluated using the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score, and early clinical outcome with the modified Rankin Scale score at discharge.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 218 patients included in this study, 110 had right-sided ischemic infarcts whereas 108 had left-sided ischemic infarcts. There was no significant difference between patients with right-sided stroke versus left-sided stroke in terms of admission symptom severity, rate of treatment, stroke risk factors, and early clinical outcome. However, voxel-based analysis showed that ischemic infarcts of insular ribbon and lentiform nucleus were asymmetrically more common on the left-sided stroke compared to the right-sided stroke. The admission symptoms were more severe among patients with left insular ribbon and lentiform nucleus infarct compared to those with infarction of mirrored right anatomical regions (P = .019).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Acute ischemic infarcts of the left insular ribbon and lentiform nucleus are asymmetrically more common compared to mirrored counterpart regions, presumably due to more severe symptoms at presentation. Otherwise, distribution of symptomatic infarcts to the rest of the brain is roughly symmetric.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
authors.forename: Seyedmehdi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Payabvash
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
authors.forename: Shayandokht
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taleb
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
authors.forename: John C
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Benson
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Electronic address: mckinrad@umn.edu.
authors.forename: Alexander M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: McKinney
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000503:physiopathology; D003342:Corpus Striatum / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000503:physiopathology; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D004185:Disability Evaluation; D005260:Female; D007839:Functional Laterality; D006760:Hospitalization; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D016896:Treatment Outcome
keywords: Ischemic infarct; hemisphere; laterality; stroke