ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the clinical, neuroimaging and serum risk factors of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) in patients with ischemic stroke and find the associations between these risk factors and the location and num?bers of CMBs were also analyzed. Methods One hundred and fifty-three patients with acute ischemic stroke were re?cruited in this study and their data werewas retrospectively analyzed. All of the patients underwent MRI- susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI). The location and numbers of CMBs were recordedexamined. The severity of WMLs was assessed using the Fazekas scale. Logistic regressions were performed to find the predictors of the presence of CMBs. The relation?ships between these risk factors and the location and numbers of CMBs were also analyzed. Results Fifty-nine(38.6%) cases had at least one CMB. The frequency of cortical-subcortical, deep and infratentorial CMBs were 34.0%, 24.8%and 27.5%, respectively. Multivariate logistic regression showed that male sex, hypertension and moderate-to-severe deep white matter hyperintensities (DWMH) were independent risk factors of the presence of CMBs. Adjusted with age and sex, partial correlation showed that hypertension only correlated with the numbers of deep CMBs significantly (r=0.174, P=0.032). Moderate-to-severe DWMH significantly correlated with the numbers of cortical-subcortical and deep CMBs (r=0.285, P<0.001 and r=0.258, P=0.001, respectively). Conclusion Male sex, hypertension and moderate-to-severe DWMH were are independent risk factors of CMBs in patients with ischemic stroke. Hypertension correlates with Deep deep CMBs, while Moderatemoderate-to-severe DWMH correlates with cortical-subcortical and deep CMBs.