Background: There has been no published research on high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging in investigating the vessel wall characteristics of middle cerebral artery in lenticulostriate infarction in Vietnam.
Aims: Using HR-MRI, our aim was to investigate the vessel wall characteristics of middle cerebral artery in lenticulostriate infarction patients.
Methods: This is a retrospective observational study including 71 patients admitted to our center from January 2019 to December 2023and satisfied the inclusion criteria.
Results: MCA plaques were observed in 39 (54.9%) patients. 27 of 39 patients had plaques location in upper dorsal side of the vessel wall (69.2%). Patients with identified plaques had the average age higher than patients without plaques (65.8 ± 10.4 years versus 48.3 ± 16.4 years; P < 0.001). Higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mellitus were showed in MCA plaques group (P = 0.002 and P = 0.015). Infarction lesion length of patients with identified plaques was significantly larger (25.41 ± 10.83 mm versus 18.88 ± 7.9 mm; P = 0.006). Significant higher percentage of distal lenticulostriate territory lesions was observed in group with MCA plaques (P< 0,001). However, there were no significant differences in terms of imaging features and NIHSS.
Conclusion: our study showed that patients with identified plaques of MCA vessel wall had significant higher average age and larger infarction lesion length. That proposed the pathogenesis of branch atheromatous disease which could not be visualized in conventional imaging techniques. HR-MRI is an important tool for identifying stroke etiology in lenticulostriate infarction with nonstenotic MCA.