Vertebrobasilar Stroke, Cerebellar Stroke, and Basilar Occlusion

Diagnosis and thrombolytic therapy of acute basilar artery occlusion: a review

Acute basilar artery (BA) occlusion is associated with an extremely high mortality. The pathogenesis in younger patients is usually embolism form cardiac sources or less frequently from vertebral artery dissection. Local atherothrombosis is more common in elderly patients. Differently to the carotid territory, for the vertebrobasilar territory there are no placebo controlled studies proving efficacy of thrombolytic treatment. Furthermore, neither the best route of administration nor the best fibrinolytic agent have been evaluated. Several uncontrolled series, however, indicate that intraarterial thrombolysis reduces mortality of patients with BA occlusion. Recanalization rates average 60% and are associated with occlusions of embolic etiology. Mortality with an average rate of 40-60% is significantly lower in the recanalization group in most series. Other independent variables affecting mortality are identified as length of obstruction, proximal BA occlusion, collateralization, high age, and initial poor clinical state. Time from onset of symptoms to start of intraarterial thrombolysis, however, is not associated with recanalization or mortality rate. This indicates that differently from thrombolytic treatment in the anterior circulation there is no fixed time window in BA thrombosis. Rate ofparenchymal hemorrhage seems to be lower with an average of 6% compared with systemic thrombolytic therapy in hemispheric stroke. Recanalization of the BA is clinically beneficial under certain circumstances only: (1) BA occlusion should affect only one segment; (2) an effective collateral supply is essential; and (3) the patient should not already be tetraplegic or comatose for a longer period of time. Clinical outcome and assessment of quality of life on follow-up of survivors with successful recanalization encourage thrombolysis in acute BA occlusions of embolic origin.

Basilar artery embolism. Clinical syndrome and neuroradiologic patterns in patients without permanent occlusion of the basilar artery

The objective of this study was to clarify the clinical and radiologic features, risk factors, and prognosis of basilar embolism without permanent basilar artery occlusion. Forty-five patients (mean age, 59 years) with basilar artery embolism participated in the study. Patients with basilar artery occlusion were excluded. The Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score on admission was < 7 in five patients, 7 to 12 in 11 patients, and > 12 in 29 patients. Etiologic factors were cardiac arrhythmia (17 patients), vertebral artery occlusion (12 patients), cervical spine trauma (4 patients), embolism following angiography (2 patients), and surgery (1 patient). MRI was performed in 17 patients and CT in 39 patients. Radiologic examinations were initially normal in 14 patients and remained normal in three patients. Final infarct localization was the thalamus (36 patients), cerebellum (20 patients), posterior cerebral artery territory (21 patients), midbrain (12 patients), and pons (8 patients). Eight to 12 weeks after stroke 12 patients were without clinical signs (Glasgow Outcome Scale [GOS] 1), 15 patients had minor neurologic deficits (GOS 2), 10 were severely disabled (GOS 3), and eight patients had died (GOS 5). Outcome correlated with GCS on admission (p < 0.0001) and with the number of ischemic lesions (p = 0.0001). The typical syndrome is an acute loss of consciousness followed by multiple brainstem symptoms. Usually, clinical symptoms improve rapidly and, in some patients, completely. Compared with basilar occlusion, basilar embolism has a relatively low mortality and outcome is frequently excellent.