Objective: Posterior circulation stroke syndromes are known to have high risk of mortality and morbidity. The recognition of posterior circulation infarcts are important for decreasing this mortality and morbidity, and can make it possible to administer thrombolysis treatment. In this study, our goal was to evaluate distribution of cerebellar infarcts, and to determine the clinical, aetiological and functional characteristics.
Material and Method: 90 patients were included in our study. All recorded vascular risk factors, blood pressure measurements, electrocardiograms, signs and symptoms during the application, results of cranial imaging and the results of studies done to reveal aethiology such as transthoracic ecocardiography and bilateral doppler ultrasonography of carotid arteries, cervical computed tomography or magnetic resonance angiography imaginings were examined.
Results: The most common vascular territories were medial posterior inferior cerebellar artery (PICA), medial superior cerebellar artery (SCA) and lateral PICA. Nausea and vomiting were the most common symptom, except for anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA). At AICA infarcts, it was derangement. The most common finding in all vascular territories were ataxia, dysmetria-disdiadokinezia and hypotonia. The most common risk factors were hypertension (HT), smoking and diabetes mellitus. Cardioembolism was found in 22.2% and vertebrobasillar atherosclerosis (VBA) was found in 61.1% of the cases as aetiological factors. VBA was more common in infarcts that involved the territories of AICA, medial PICA and Iateral PICA. Cardioembolism was the most common in infarcts that involved the territories of medial SCA, Iateral SCA and Iateral PICA.
Conclusions: In our study we found that the most commonly affected territory was medial PICA. The most common signs were nausea and vomiting, and the most common symptom was ataxia. HT was the predominant risk factor and the most common aetiological factor was VBA.
Key words: Posterior circulation, cerebellar infarct, cardioembolism, vertebrobasillar atherosclerosis
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