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.

Vertebral artery hypoplasia: a predisposing factor for posterior circulation stroke?

Perren F, Poglia D, Landis T, Sztajzel R

Department of Neurology, HUG, University Hospital and Medical School of Geneva, Micheli-du-Crest 24, CH-1211 Geneva 14, Switzerland. Fabienne.Perren@hcuge.ch

We determined in 725 sequentially admitted first-ever stroke patients, using color-coded duplex flow imaging of the V2 segment, whether vertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH) (diameter < or = 2.5 mm) was more frequent (13%) in posterior circulation territory infarction (247) than in strokes in other territories (4.6%). This difference is significant (p < 0.001), whereas all other risk factors (hypertension, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, smoking) were equally (p > 0.05) distributed. Patients with VAH may be predisposed to stroke in the posterior circulation.

Published 3 January 2007 in Neurology, 68(1): 65-7.
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