Stroke Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Stroke, including details on treatment, recovery, rehabilitation, signs, symptoms.

Pure sensory stroke as an isolated manifestation of the lateral medullary infarction.

Blitshteyn S, Rubino FA

Department of Neurology, Mayo Clinic Jacksonville, Mayo College of Medicine, Jacksonville, FL 32224, USA.

Pure sensory stroke is a common manifestation of a thalamic stroke and may occur less frequently in the infarction of the brainstem, internal capsule, and parietal cortex. The authors report a 47-year-old man who presented with loss of pain and temperature sensation in the left face, arm, trunk, and leg and was found to have a right lateral medullary infarction on diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first case describing pure sensory stroke as a single, isolated manifestation of the lateral medullary infarction that was detected by diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. This case suggests that with the availability of diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging, pure sensory stroke may carry a broader spectrum of the anatomical localizations than previously determined and can localize to the lateral medulla. Therefore, a possibility of medullary infarction should be considered when a patient presents with pure sensory stroke, especially when diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is not immediately available to provide radiographic correlation.

Published 2 December 2004 in J Neuroimaging, 15(1): 82-4.
Full-text of this article is available online (may require subscription).

© 2004-2008 Stroke Research Today. All Rights Reserved.