Thalamic pure sensory stroke

A pathologic study

Fisher, C. Miller M.D.

Neurology Service of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School. Boston, Massachusetts.

Dr. Fisher's address is Department of Neurology, Harvard Medical School, Boston MA 02114.

This study was supported in part by NINCDS Grant NS05152.

Accepted for publication September 1, 1977.

Neurology 28(11):p 1141-1144, November 1978.

Article abstract

Two cases of pure sensory stroke were studied pathologically 6 months and 4 years after the acute illness. In both, there were lacunar infarcts in the region of the sensory nucleus of the thalamus on the side opposite the symptoms. The responsible vascular lesion in each case was hypertensive lipohyalinotic cerebral angiopathy, a process that correlates with the presence of hypertension. This was the first time that a complete clinicopathologic investigation was possible in pure sensory stroke and also the first time a lipohyalinotic lesion was shown to be the cause of a specific clinical syndrome.