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Abstract #2261

Distribution of Cerebral Blood Flow in the Nucleus Caudatus, Nucleus Lentiformis, and Thalamus in Patients with a Carotid Artery Stenosis

Nolan S. Hartkamp1, Reinoud P.H. Bokkers1, H. B. van der Worp2, L. J. Kappelle2, M. P.J. van Osch3, Willem P.T.M. Mali1, Jeroen Hendrikse1

1Department of Radiology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 2Department of Neurology, University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands; 3Department of Radiology, Leids University Medical Center, Leiden, Netherlands


For patients with a symptomatic internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis, it is often difficult to identify the symptomatic artery for treatment due to the variability in perfusion territories of the major cerebral arteries. For the basal ganglia, this imposes an even greater difficulty. Using selective arterial spin-labeling MRI, this study found the nucleus caudatus in patients with a symptomatic ICA stenosis was more often fed by the contralateral ICA compared to healthy control subjects (p=0.03). This was accompanied by reversed blood flow through the ipsilateral anterior part of the circle of Willis (p<0.01).

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