Double infarction in one cerebral hemisphere

Thirty-two patients whose first stroke was due to double infarct in one cerebral hemisphere were identified among 1,911 consecutive patients from the Lausanne Stroke Registry. The double infarct involved territories of the superficial middle cerebral artery, superficial posterior cerebral artery, lenticulostriate, anterior choroidal artery, or borderzone. The most common combination involved territories of the anterior middle cerebral artery plus the posterior middle cerebral artery. In the patients with the double infarct, the prevalence of potential cardiac sources of embolism (19%) was similar to that found in the registry in general, but the double infarct was closely associated with tight (greater than or equal to 90% of the lumen diameter) stenosis or occlusion (75%) of the internal carotid artery. The most common neurological picture mimicked large infarction in the middle cerebral artery territory, but nearly half of the patients with double infarct in one cerebral hemisphere had a specific clinical syndrome, which was not found in the 1,879 remaining patients from the registry, including hemianopia-hemiplegia (in 6), acute conduction aphasia-hemiparesis (in 2), and acute transcortical mixed aphasia (in 6), in relation to characteristic combinations of infarcts. These unique clinical and etiological correlates warrant the recognition of double infarct in one cerebral hemisphere from other acute ischemic strokes.