Brachiofacial pure motor stroke

Pure motor stroke is the commonest lacunar syndrome, but it may be associat ed with nonlacunar mechanisms of infarction. Pure motor brachiofacial weakn ess has been considered as a partial syndrome depending on a lacunar mechan ism. We studied the correlations between stroke type, topography of infarct ion and etiology in 22 patients with pure motor brachiofacial weakness who were consecutively admitted to our stroke unit during a 10-year period. Sev enteen patients had a small deep infarct, 4 had a cortical infarct in the s uperficial MCA territory and 1 had no specific lesion. The part of the card iovascular risk factors was about 36% for smoking, 13% for diabetes mellitu s, 60% for dyslipidemia and 40% for heart disease. Hypertension was present in 75% of our cases. None of the patients had a large artery stenosis on D oppler ultrasonography. We concluded that brachiofacial pure motor stroke i s not always correlated to lacunar infarcts and may be due to a cortical in farct. MRI should be performed when brain CT is normal because of the impli cations it may have in management and therapy. Copyright (C) 2001 S. Karger AG, Basel.