Subtypes of anterior circulation large artery occlusions with acute brain ischemic stroke

Sci Rep. 2020 Feb 26;10(1):3442. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-60399-3.

Abstract

Anterior circulation large artery occlusion (AC-LAO) related acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is particularly common in clinics in China. We retrospectively analyzed 787 consecutively hospitalized AIS patients with AC-LAO in Hebei Province, China. AC-LAO was defined as a complete occlusion of at least one intracranial internal carotid artery (ICA) or middle cerebral artery (MCA) based on computed tomography or magnetic resonance angiography. Among eight subtypes of AC-LAO, unilateral MCA occlusion is the most common one (49.8%, n = 392), while bilateral ICA/unilateral MCA occlusion is the least (0.3%, n = 2). Compared with unilateral MCA and unilateral ICA occlusion, patients with tandem ICA/MCA and bilateral ICA/MCA occlusion had poor outcomes after suffering AIS. Age (OR 1.022; 95%CI, 1.007 to 1.036) was an independent risk factor for single artery progressed to multiple artery occlusion, while ApoA1 (OR 0.453; 95% CI, 0.235 to 0.953) was a protective factor. Patients with unilateral MCA occlusion were prone to artery-to-artery embolism infarction subtype, unilateral ICA occlusion group were the most vulnerable to hypoperfusion/impaired emboli clearance subtype. Our results suggested various AC-LAO subtypes have different clinical characteristics and prognosis and were prone to different subtypes of infarction. Customized preventive measures based on AC-LAO subtypes may be more targeted preventions of stroke recurrences for AIS patients and could improve their prognoses.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Carotid Artery Diseases / complications
  • Carotid Artery Diseases / pathology*
  • Carotid Artery, Internal / diagnostic imaging
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / complications
  • Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / pathology*
  • Magnetic Resonance Angiography
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Middle Cerebral Artery / diagnostic imaging
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Risk Factors
  • Severity of Illness Index
  • Stroke / diagnosis*
  • Stroke / etiology
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed