Abstract
Clinical features and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of infarction in the territory of the superior cerebellar artery (SCA) were studied in eight patients. The study included also eight patients with anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) infarcts and sixteen patients with posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA) infarcts. Ataxic dysarthria was frequent (75%) in the SCA group, compared to the AICA (25%) and PICA (13%) groups. In three patients with SCA infarct, limb ataxia was more predominant in the lower limb than in the upper limb. Patients with AICA and PICA infarct showed no predominancy between upper and lower limb ataxia. Vertigo and nystagmus were less frequent in the SCA group (13%) than in the AICA (75%) and PICA (86%) groups. MRI showed that 75% of the SCA infarcts were localized within the territory of its cortical branches, whereas 92% of the AICA and PICA infarcts involved the territory of their main-stems or circumferential branches. These results suggest that the SCA infarct has some special features compared to the AICA and PICA infarct. (1) ataxic dysarthria and lower limb ataxia are frequent, (2) vestibular symptoms are rare, (3) cortical infarcts without brain-stem lesion are frequent.
