THE ANTERIOR INFERIOR CEREBELLAR ARTERY INFARCTS - A CLINICAL-MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING STUDY

Acute infarcts of the anterior inferior cerebellar artery (AICA) are u nusual. We report 15 cases of AICA infarcts and their correlation with the topography of the lesion by brain MRI. During 2 years we prospect ively identified 7 cases of AICA infarcts among 770 acute strokes (0.9 % of the acute strokes seen in our department). We studied these cases and also another 8 that we found retrospectively. Most patients (8/15 ) had a unilateral affectation of both middle cerebellar peduncle (MCP ) and inferior lateral pontine area (ILP), in these cases the main sym ptoms were vertigo, ataxia, peripheral facial palsy and hypoacusia. Tw o other patients had isolated MCP infarcts and were characterized by p eripheral vertigo and ataxia, without hypoacusia or facial palsy. Anot her 2 patients had isolated ILP territory infarct characterized by ver tigo, left peripheral facial palsy without hypoacusia and mild or no a taxia. One patient had a Gasperini syndrome. Finally 3 patients had bi lateral AICA infarcts due to basilar thrombosis. The etiology was athe rosclerosis in 9 patients, lacunar due to hypertension in 1, cardiac e mbolism in 1, migraine in 1 and unknown in 3. Among the 15 patients on ly 2 died, both with AICA plus infarcts. In the remaining patients a f ollow-up during a mean of 31 months (3 months to 12 years) showed no r ecurrences.