Silent cerebral microbleeds on T2-weighted MRI: Correlation with stroke subtype, stroke recurrence, and leukoaraiosis

Gradient-echo T2*-weighted MRI is uniquely sensitive to detect silent, old hemosiderin deposits, but the clinical significance of such "microbleeds" remains to be determined. Therefore, we investigated the incidence and the number of microbleeds among different stroke subtypes and the corr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Stroke (1970) 2002-06, Vol.33 (6), p.1536-1540
Main Authors: KATO, Hiroyuki, IZUMIYAMA, Masahiro, IZUMIYAMA, Kimiaki, TAKAHASHI, Akira, ITOYAMA, Yasuto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aged
Biological and medical sciences
Brain - blood supply
Cerebral Infarction - complications
Cerebral Infarction - diagnosis
Female
Hemosiderin
Humans
Intracranial Hemorrhages - complications
Intracranial Hemorrhages - diagnosis
Magnetic Resonance Imaging - methods
Male
Medical sciences
Microcirculation
Neurology
Predictive Value of Tests
Recurrence
Stroke - classification
Stroke - complications
Stroke - diagnosis
Vascular diseases and vascular malformations of the nervous system
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Summary:Gradient-echo T2*-weighted MRI is uniquely sensitive to detect silent, old hemosiderin deposits, but the clinical significance of such "microbleeds" remains to be determined. Therefore, we investigated the incidence and the number of microbleeds among different stroke subtypes and the correlation with stroke recurrence and the severity of leukoaraiosis. This study consisted of 213 patients (73.5+/-9.1 years old, 104 men and 109 women), who were classified according to stroke subtypes into atherothrombotic infarction (24 patients), cardioembolic infarction (23 patients), lacunar infarction (66 patients), intracerebral hemorrhage (35 patients), and control (65 patients) groups. Gradient-echo T2*-weighted MRI was performed with a 1.5 T system, and asymptomatic microbleeds were located and counted. The incidence and the number of microbleeds were significantly greater in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (71.4% and 9.1+/-13.8, respectively) and lacunar infarction (62.1% and 7.4+/-16.1) compared with patients with cardioembolic infarction (30.4% and 2.5+/-5.6), atherothrombotic infarction (20.8% and 0.63+/-1.53), and controls (7.7% and 0.09+/-0.34). There was a correlation between the number of microbleeds and the severity of periventricular hyperintensity (r=0.626, P
ISSN:0039-2499
1524-4628
DOI:10.1161/01.STR.0000018012.65108.86