Objective To investigate the risk factors, clinical features and outcomes of patients with large hemispheric infarction (LHI), and explore the association between TOAST classification and LHI. Methods We prospectively registered consecutive cases of acute ischemic stroke at the neurological wards of West China Hospital, Sichuan University from January 1st 2010 to February 29th 2012. We collected the demographic data, risk factors, and other related data, assessed the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) scores at admission, and followed-up the Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) scores at the third month from the onset. In different TOAST classifications, univariate analysis and multivariate analysis were used to find predictors for the occurrence and prognosis of LHI. Results Of the enrolled 1 729 patients with acute ischemic stroke, 317 (18.3%) had LHI. The multivariate analysis showed that male, hypertension and onset to admission time were the independent predictive factors for the large-artery atherosclerosis type LHI (P<0.05); atrial fibrillation and valvulopathy were the independent predictive factors for cardioembolism type LHI (P<0.05). Meanwhile, age, hypertension, onset to admission time, and NIHSS and GCS scores at admission were the independent predictive factors for death/disability (mRS>3) within three months (P<0.05). Conclusions Hypertension, gender, onset to admission time, atrial fibrillation, and valvulopathy are independently associated with the occurrence of LHI. Young patients with lower GCS, higher NIHSS scores and no hypertension are more likely to have a better prognosis after LHI.
ObjectiveTo investigate the association between the imaging markers of ischemic cerebral small vessel disease and the occurrence of large hemispheric infarction (LHI).MethodsWe consecutively enrolled the patients with cerebral infarction in the middle cerebral artery blood supply area who admitted to the Department of Neurology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University between January 1st, 2015 and March 30th, 2016, and underwent head CT/MRI scans within one month of onset. LHI was defined as: the hypodensity was larger than 1/2 of the blood supply area of middle cerebral artery or more than 1/3 of the cerebral hemisphere within 6 hours on head CT at admission, or the infarction area was larger than 2/3 of the ipsilateral hemisphere on head MRI at admission. The basic clinical data and imaging data were collected, and the independent predictors of LHI and its independent correlation with ischemic cerebrovascular disease were explored by univariate and multivariate analyses.ResultsA total of 503 patients were included, 111 (22.1%) with LHI and 392 (77.9%) with non-LHI. Compared with the non-LHI patients, the LHI patients had a lower prevalence of white matter lesions, a lower Fazekas score, a lower prevalence of Fazekas score > 1, a lower prevalence of lacunae, a lower proportion of diabetes mellitus, a higher atrial fibrillation proportion of history, a shorter time from onset to treatment, a higher National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score at admission, and a lower Glasgow Coma scale score; the distributions of TOAST types and locations of vascular stenosis were different (P<0.05). Multivariate analyses showed that white matter lesions [odds ratio (OR)=0.182, 95% confidence interval (CI) (0.050, 0.660), P=0.010], higher Fazekas score [OR=0.770, 95% CI (0.611, 0.970), P=0.027], and Fakazes score > 1 [OR=0.490, 95%CI (0.259, 0.928), P=0.029] were independent protective factors of LHI, while lacunae was not an independent factor of LHI [OR=0.583, 95% CI (0.265, 1.279), P=0.178]. Higher NIHSS score and history of atrial fibrillation were independent risk factors for LHI (P<0.001).ConclusionsThe occurrence and severity of white matter lesions (higher Fazekas score and Fazekas score > 1) are more in non-LHI group, and are independently related to the occurrence of LHI. The results suggest that ischemic preconditioning may have a protective effect on brain.