IS HEMODYNAMICAL COMPROMISE A SPECIFIC CAUSE OF BORDER ZONE BRAIN INFARCTS FOLLOWING CARDIAC-SURGERY

We evaluated the hypothesis that if hypotension or hypoperfusion is a major cause of border zone brain infarction, infarcts following cardia c surgery will be Likely to be located in the vascular border zone are as, whereas cerebral perfusion would be lower compared with non-border zone infarcts. Ten of 37 patients with brain infarction following car diac surgery had an infarct in one of the vascular border zones on CT. Haemodynamical characteristics and clinical features did not differ b etween border zone infarcts and remaining infarct subgroups. We conclu de that compared with stroke series brain infarcts following cardiac s urgery are more frequently located in one of the vascular border zone areas, but peri-operative haemodynamic compromise alone does not suffi ciently explain this difference. Other possible mechanisms, such as sh owers of(micro-)emboli, should also be considered.