Strokes

Question 1

What does stroke of the middle cerebral artery cause?

Answer 1

• Contralateral paralysis & sensory deficits in head, arm and upper body (upper body homunculus - motor and somatosensory cortex)
• Motor speech deficit = Broca’s area

Question 2

What does stroke of the anterior cerebral artery cause?

Answer 2

Contralateral paralysis & sensory deficits in lower body and extremity (lower body homunculus - motor and somatosensory cortex)

Question 3

What does stroke of the posterior cerebral artery produce?

Answer 3

Blindness in the contralateral visual field.

Question 4

What does occlusion of the Posterior Inferior Cerebellar Artery (PICA) cause?

Answer 4

Lateral Medullary Syndrome/Wallenburg Syndrome -Clinical symptoms include swallowing difficulty, or dysphagia,[1] slurred speech, ataxia, facial pain, vertigo, nystagmus, Horner’s syndrome, diplopia, and possibly palatal myoclonus.

Question 5

What are the two main types of stroke?

Answer 5

1. Occlusion of a vessel by a thrombus or embolus –> Ischemia –> Infarction and/or necrosis
2. Hemorrhage from a vessel (often associated with hypertension)
   - Intracerebral (perforating vessels)
   - Aneurysm

Question 6

What is the calcarine artery a branch of? What does a stroke here cause?

Answer 6

The posterior Cerebral Artery - Stroke causes contralateral vision loss