CLINICAL SPECTRUM AND NEURO IMAGING FINDINGS OF PATIENTS WITH CEREBRAL ARTERIOPATHY

Neuro-Imaging

Abstract

Objective: To determine the association between the clinical spectrum and neuroimaging findings of patients with cerebral arteriopathy.
Study Design: Prospective cross-sectional study.
Place and Duration of Study: The Institute of Child Health and the Children Hospital Ferozepur Road Lahore, from Jan 2016 to Jun 2016.
Material and Method: The study was carried out on sixty patients who were less than 16 of age years and admitted in neurology department during this period of six months. They were all confirmed cases of cerebral arteriopathy on the basis of history, examination, investigations and imaging findings. Arteriopathy on imaging was defined as focal or segmental narrowing of arterial blood vessels. While patients with other causes of arterial ischemic stroke were excluded from the study.
Results: Out of these 60 patients, majority of them were females (55%) and again majority of them were under the age of 5 years (38%). Recurrent episodes of stroke were noted in (56%), hemiplegia (96.7%) followed by fits (53.3%) was the frequently occurring feature. The radiological finding showed that both acute as well as chronic infarction was a frequent feature (46.7%) and commonly involved artery was middle cerebral artery.
Conclusion: Hemiplegia followed by fits was the most occurring clinical findings and middle cerebral artery was found to be most commonly involved. The diagnosis of cerebral arteriopathy is important because of the long-term morbidity in the form of neurological and behavioral complications. Timely treatment and multidisciplinary approach is needed for these complications. Recurrence can also be prevented in this way.