Figure 1. Movie of head CT scan.
Figure 2. Movie of head MRI.
A 77 year old man with a history of chronic heart failure was admitted to the hospital complaining of left sided hemiparesis for about an hour. He was oriented but had slurred speech and was unable to move his left arm or leg. His pulse was irregular and ECG showed atrial fibrillation. A CT scan of the head (Figure 1) was interpreted as relatively unremarkable. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the head (Figure 2) showed massive right brain infarction. These studies illustrate the higher sensitivity of MRI in comparison to CT in the detection of stroke, especially early after the onset on symptoms (1).
Nijamudin Samani, MD; Yong-Jie Yin, MD; Sanjaya Karki, MD; and Jing-Xiao Zhang, MD
Department of Emergency and Critical Care
Second Hospital of Jilin University
Norman Bethune College of Medicine
Changchun, China
Reference
- Chalela JA, Kidwell CS, Nentwich LM, Luby M, Butman JA, Demchuk AM, Hill MD, Patronas N, Latour L, Warach S. Magnetic resonance imaging and computed tomography in emergency assessment of patients with suspected acute stroke: a prospective comparison. Lancet. 2007;369(9558):293-8. [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Reference as: Samani N, Yin YJ, Karki S, Zhang JX. Medical image of the week: massive cerebral infarction. Soutwest J Pulm Crit Care. 2013;7(1):25-6. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.13175/swjpcc084-13 PDF