title: Clinical Features of Thalamic Stroke.
abstract: The thalamus plays an important role in different brain functions including memory, emotions, sleep-wake cycle, executive functions, mediating general cortical alerting responses, processing of sensory (including taste, somatosensory, visual, and auditory) information and relaying it to the cortex, and sensorimotor control. Thalamic stroke, both in isolation and in combination with infarcts involving other structures, are not rare. The functional complexity of the thalami nuclei and the not uncommon normal variations of arteries supply the thalamus induce wide variations in presentation of thalami infarcts. In patients with an unusual collection of deficits difficult to explain by a single lesion, in particular where there is impaired vigilance, thalamic disease should be considered which may mimic several different neurological conditions. By researching the literature, we found that the characteristic stroke syndrome of paramedian thalamic infarction is probably underdiagnosed. In addition to thalamic infarct, thalamic lesions can be caused by deep cerebral venous thrombosis with neuropsychological and radiological features that should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intracranial artery occlusion or bleeding, especially in young patients.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, new territory, Hong Kong.
authors.forename: Xiang Yan
authors.initials: XY
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Shanghai First People's Hospital, Medical College, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Qiaoshu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Qingdao Municipal Hospital, Qingdao, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, Prince of Wales Hospital, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, new territory, Hong Kong. ks-wong@cuhk.edu.hk.
authors.forename: Ka Sing
authors.initials: KS
authors.lastname: Wong
keywords: Clinical features; Stroke; Thalamus