REVIEWS
Lacunar infarcts: no black holes in the brain are benign
Professor of Neurology Department of Neurology, Lund University Hospital, S-221 85 Lund, Sweden; bo.norrving{at}med.lu.se
Lacunar infarcts—small subcortical infarcts that result from occlusion of a single penetrating artery—account for about one quarter of all ischaemic strokes. However, there are many diagnostic pitfalls, and causes other than penetrating small vessel disease in up to one third of cases. Recent studies have shown that the prognosis after lacunar infarcts is not benign; the risk of recurrent stroke is no lower than for other ischaemic stroke subtypes, and there is an increased risk for cognitive decline, dementia and death in the long term. Furthermore, silent small vessel disease in the brain at the time of an index stroke has significant prognostic implications. In the acute phase, response to intravenous thrombolysis appears to be similar to other subtypes of ischaemic strokes. Antiplatelet drugs, careful blood pressure control, statins and modification of lifestyle risk factors are key elements in secondary prevention after lacunar infarcts. ...[End of Extract]
[PDF of this article]
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
