2018 Volume 88 Issue 3 Pages 90-97
Objective: The relationship between cerebral infarction (CI) and cerebral microbleeds (CMB) is not fully understood. We sought to elucidate the clinical features of CMB by investigating its incidence and distribution in CI patients, and examined relationships among the risk factors for stroke.
Materials and Methods: We retrospectively reviewed 162 CI patients who were treated and underwent head MRI including T2*-weighted images at our hospital in 2016. Clinical information, such as type of CI, past history, MRA findings and laboratory data, were collected and analyzed for correlation with CMB.
Results: CMB was observed in 59 patients (36.4 %). The factors found to significantly correlate with CMB were male sex (p=0.0351), past history of hypertension (p=0.0152) and lacunar infarction as the current CI subtype (p=0.0489). Anti-thromboembolic drug use (p=0.5148) and hemorrhagic tendency based on laboratory data were not significant factors (p=0.4912). EGFR (estimated glomerular filtration rate) was significantly lower in patients with CMB (57.9±22.4 mL/min vs 66.3±24.6 mL/min, p=0.0276). We analyzed the location of major vessel stenosis and the distribution of CMB, but no relationships were observed (p=0.5672).
Conclusion: There was no correlation between the location of major vessel stenosis and the distribution of CMB, confirming that CMB is not an ischemic change but rather lipohyalinosis induced by hypertension. Deep CMB may be a useful biomarker for chronic kidney disease or underlying hypertension with careful differentiation of iron deposits in basal ganglia.
