A clinical study of 288 patients with anterior cerebral artery infarction

Acute ischemic stroke in the territory of anterior cerebral artery (ACA) is uncommon. Therefore, large population studies evaluating ACA infarction are scarce. We sought to evaluate epidemiological and etiological characteristics of ACA infarction compared to other territorial infarctions.

We analyzed a prospectively collected stroke registry of all acute ischemic stroke patients for 19 years at two tertiary hospitals. We included patients with acute ischemic stroke caused by large vessel stenosis or occlusion including ACA, middle cerebral artery (MCA), posterior cerebral artery (PCA), and vertebrobasilar artery (VBA).

A total of 4171 patients were enrolled. Patients with ACA infarction (N = 288) were significantly older with more females than those with MCA, PCA, or VBA infarction. There were more patients with history of prior ischemic stroke in the ACA infarction group than in other groups. The etiology of the ACA infarction was similar to those of the MCA, PCA and also the total population (66.7-71.8% of LAA and 17.9-20.9% of CE). When patients had prior ischemic stroke history, ACA infarction was more likely to be caused by LAA than MCA or PCA infarction (OR = 6.2, 95% CI 2.0-19.2, p = 0.002 and OR = 4.0, 95% CI 1.1-14.6, p = 0.038, respectively).

Patients with ACA infarction had significantly more prior ischemic stroke than those with MCA, PCA, or VBA infarction. The etiology of ACA infarction in patients with prior ischemic stroke showed significantly more LAA than that of MCA or PCA infarction.