Magnetic resonance imaging characteristics of ischemic stroke in an Afro-Caribbean population: A 1-year prospective MRI study on 534 consecutive patients

Summary Purposes Few population-based MRI studies on stroke, particularly in African-descent populations, are available. Based on a 1-year Afro-Caribbean population-based study MRI, ischemic stroke characteristics were extensively analyzed. Methods All strokes occurring in Martinique (390,371 inhabitants) were prospectively included. Ascertainment was based, whenever possible, on MRI. All patients were categorized as single- (subclassified as cortical, cortical–subcortical, subcortical, lacunar) or multiple-lesion pattern, and vascular (single, multiple or junctional) territory. Brain parenchyma was evaluated, based on visualization of macrobleeds, microbleeds, white-matter hyperintensities or stroke sequelae. Etiology was classified according to TOAST criteria. Results Among 596 ischemic stroke patients included, 534 (295 men, 239 women; mean age, 71 [range 23–110] years) underwent MRI (median delay 1 day). Four hundred and eighty-eight had single-type lesion (14.8% cortical, 42.4% cortical–subcortical, 14.5% subcortical, 16.6% lacunar), involving anterior cerebral (4%), middle cerebral (63.7%), posterior cerebral artery (10.4%) or basilar trunk (11.7%) territories, with 10.3% simultaneously involving multiple territories and 4.9% junctional infarction. Etiologies were LAA (11.2%), SVD (10.7%), CE (29.6%), rare (4.5%) or undetermined (44.1%). Conclusion Our prospective, consecutive, ischemic stroke series gives a comprehensive description of ischemic stroke imaging patterns and etiologic distributions in an Afro-Caribbean population with high socio-economic status. Our patients’ stroke characteristics are close to those of European-descent populations.