[Intra- and extra-cranial arterial lesions in TIA patients]

Ninety-six patients with transient ischemia attacks were examined by transcranial Doppler (TCD), carotid color-coded ultrasonic imagine, brain computed tomographic scan (CT), compared with digital subtract angiography (DSA), MRI and MRA were done in some cases. The abnormality of CT and MRI was 30.2% and 74.1%, respectively. The most common findings were lacunar infarction or cerebral atrophy. Sixty-two cases fulfilled the TCD criteria of definitive arterial stenosis (64.5%) and three cases of arteriovenous malformation, among whom 27 patients (43.5%) carried out the examination of DSA. There was an excellent coincidence between the DSA and TCD findings, although DSA showed more vessels involved in some patients. Of the 96 cases, the intracranial arterial stenosis or occlusion was in 48.5% and the extracranial in 17.8%. The younger patients (age < 60 years) were subject to involvement of unilateral intracranial artery, but the older had predominantly the bilateral intracranial arterial and extracranial carotid or subclavian arterial lesions.