Abstract
Clinical figure of cerebral infarction involving anterior cerebral artery (ACA) territory was studied in 1586 consecutive cases of acute cerebral infarction admitted into our stroke care unit. ACA territory infarction was found in 74 patietns, which corresponded to 4.7% of entire cases. The lesion was localized within ACA territory in 8 cases, while the infarct involved also other regions in 66. Localized ACA infarction was always caused by thrombosis except for one patient who had embolic ACA occlusion. In this particular patient, hypoplasia of the contralateral A1 portion was observed angiographically. On the other hand, non-localized ACA infarction was produced mainly by embolism. Angiographical examination of the cases of ACA territory embolism showed high incidence of hypoplasia of the contralateral A1 portoion or occlusion of the contralateral internal carotid artery. These two occlusive changes were probably facilitating factors for occurence of ACA territory embolism. Prognosis of the cases with localized ACA infarction was generally exellent, while that of the cases with non-localized infarction was poor and often resulted in brain death. The results of the present study indicate that the pathogenesis of localized and non-localized ACA territory infarctions are quite different.
