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Mild neurological symptoms despite middle cerebral artery occlusion
Shelagh B Coutts1, Philip A Barber, Andrew M Demchuk
1Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Alberta T2N 2T9, Canada. shelagh.coutts@calgaryhealthregion.ca
Background And Purpose:
Only a small percentage of stroke patients are treated with thrombolytic therapy. We sought to determine whether vessel occlusion in mild strokes represented a new target population for interventional therapy.
Methods:
We imaged 106 acute stroke patients with MRI. Patients were identified with evidence of middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and mild or no stroke signs (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS]
Results:
We identified 5 patients with absent flow on MRA in the MCA and mild or no stroke signs (NIHSS
Conclusions:
Caution should be exercised in considering thrombolytic therapy in these patients. Quantification of perfusion imaging is required to identify "at risk" mild stroke populations.