Stenosis length of middle cerebral artery and branch atheromatous disease associated infarct

Background: We analyzed the relationship between the characteristics of branch atheromatous disease associated infarct (BAI) and stenosis length (SL) of relevant middle cerebral artery (MCA) M1 segment. Methods: Ninety-five patients with BAI were recruited from 1024 consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients. Among them, 59 patients (62.11%) had concurrent relative stenosis of MCA M1 segment. The neurologic deficit severity at admission was assessed by National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and the infarct size by infarct lesion thickness and maximum diameter. The SL and the distance from the carotid terminal segment to stenosis (DT) were measured on coronary projection on 3D TOF MRA. The correlations between SL and NIHSS, SL and infarct lesion maximum diameter were analyzed. Results: There was no difference between BAI patients with or without M1 stenosis in image markers for infarct etiological subtype. SL was significant difference in patients with NIHSS >3 vs.<= 3 (p = 0.032) at admission. Further analysis showed that SL correlated with NIHSS at admission (r(s) = 0.613, p = 0.000) and maximum diameter (r(s) = 0.621, p = 0.000) significantly. Conclusion: SL is a significant moderate predictor for infarct lesion diameter and neurologic deficit severity.