Peri-infarct reorganization at the centrum semiovale and corona radiata A diffusion tensor tractography and functional MRI study

Pen-infarct reorganization has been reported in stroke patients with a lesion at the cerebral cortex, corona radiata, or pons, separately. However, there have been no reports describing the patients with pen-infarct reorganization at multiple levels. The present study reported a patient with a middle cerebral artery infarct who showed complete paralysis of the right extremities at stroke onset. Results showed that at 3 years after stroke onset, patient's motor function of the affected hand appeared to have been recovered by the motor tract, which reorganized into the anterior areas of the infarcted centrum semiovale and corona radiata, as demonstrated by diffusion tensor tractography study analyzed using functional MRI activation results. This result indicates that the human brain can show extensive brain plasticity and that saving the adjacent area or penumbra around the infarct even though the lesion from multiple levels is important for functional recovery after stroke.