Correlation between lesion pattern and etiological mechanism in acute isolated pontine infarction / 国际脑血管病杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To investigate the correlation between lesion pattern and etiological mechanism in acute isolated pontine infarction.Methods The clinical data in patients with acute isolated pontine infarction were collected retrospectively. Diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) was used to identify the lesion patterns. The correlation between the lesion pattern and etiological subtype was analyzed. Results A total of 146 patients with acute isolated pontine infarction were enrolled in the study, including 136 unilateral infarctions and 8 bilateral infarctions. The DWI lesion pattern analysis showed that there were 98 patients with paranasal infarction, 11 with anterolateral infarction, 18 with tegmentum infarction, and 19 with multiple infarction. Among all the etiological subtypes, basilar artery branch disease (BABD) accounted for the greatest proportion (n = 72, 49.3%), followed by large arterial occlusive disease ( n = 32, 21.9%), small arterial occlusive disease ( n = 25, 17.1%), and other causes/unknown causes ( n = 12, 8.2%). Cardioembolism was minimal (n =5, 3.4%). The distribution patterns of DWI lesions in acute isolated pontine infarction were significantly correlated with the etiological subtypes (C = 0.516, P < 0.001). Among them, 60 patients with paramedian infarction ( χ2 =16.915, P <0.001), 1 with anterolateral infarction ( χ2 =7.701, P = 0.006), 1 with tegmentum infarction ( χ2 =17.401, P <0.001) were closely associated with BABD; 9 patients with paramedian infarction ( χ2 =12.534, P <0.001), 6 with anterolateral infarction ( χ2 =24.365, P <0.001), and 10 with tegmentum infarction ( χ2 =18.312, P < 0.001) were significantly associated with small arterial occlusive disease. Conclusions There are significant correlation between the lesion pattern and etiological mechanism in acute isolated pontine infarction. The cause of acute isolated pontine infarction can be predicted in early stage by DWI revealed infarction distribution characteristics.