STROKE PATTERNS IN PATIENTS WITH ATRIAL SEPTAL ANEURYSM AND ISCHEMIC STROKE OF UNKNOWN CAUSE

It has been suggested that, in patients with atrial septal aneurysm (A SA), brain infarcts occur more frequently in the vertebrobasilar terri tory. The aim of our study was to compare the location of infarcts bet ween (1) 26 patients with an ASA and no other potential cause of strok e; (2) 76 patients with presumed cardioembolic stroke and no ASA, and (3) 64 patients with large-vessel atherosclerosis (LVA) and no ASA. In farcts were less likely to be cortical (p = 0.005) in the ASA group th an in the LVA group. The location of infarcts did not significantly di ffer between ASA and cardioembolic groups. The prevalence of vertebrob asilar infarcts did not differ between groups. This study did not supp ort the hypothesis that, in patients with ASA, brain infarcts occur mo re frequently in the vertebrobasilar territory.