O. Kim 1, S. An 1, S. Oh 1, J. Kim 1, W. Kim 2
1 CHA Bundang Medical Center, CHA University – Seongnam,
2 Kangdong Sacred Heart Hospital, Hallym University College of Medicine – Seoul, South Korea
Objective: Lacunar infarction was considered due to occlusion of small penetrating artery and disease of small cerebral arteriole. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) pulsatile index (PI) has been interpreted as a marker for distal vascular resistance and reflects microangiopahty in cerebral arteries. Therefore, we hypothesized that increased PI might be associated with more large infarct size due to progressed underlying microangiopathy in patients with acute lacunar stroke.
Material and Methods: We included 69 patients with acute lacunar stroke who completed TCD. We used mean PI value of both MCA for analysis. Infarct size was a maximal diameter of acute lesion based on diffusion weighted MRI.
Results: There was significant correlation between PI and infarct size (r=0.251, p=0.037, by Spearman`s correlation). After adjustment for sex, age, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and hypercholesterolemia, the significant correlation remained significant between of them (r=0.336, p=0.007).
Discussion: This study suggested that underlying microangiopathy contribute the degree of cerebral ischemic damage in acute stroke.
Key words: lacunar stroke, pulsatile index, transcranial Doppler.