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).