Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, Columbia, USA.
Behav Neurol. 2011;24(2):117-22. doi: 10.3233/BEN-2011-0283.
Lesion-symptom mapping studies are based upon the assumption that behavioral impairments are directly related to structural brain damage. Given what is known about the relationship between perfusion deficits and impairment in acute stroke, attributing specific behavioral impairments to localized brain damage leaves much room for speculation, as impairments could also reflect abnormal neurovascular function in brain regions that appear structurally intact on traditional CT and MRI scans. Compared to acute stroke, the understanding of cerebral perfusion in chronic stroke is far less clear. Utilizing arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI, we examined perfusion in 17 patients with chronic left hemisphere stroke. The results revealed a decrease in left hemisphere perfusion, primarily in peri-infarct tissue. There was also a strong relationship between increased infarct size and decreased perfusion. These findings have implications for lesion-symptom mapping studies as well as research that relies on functional MRI to study chronic stroke.
病灶-症状映射研究基于这样一种假设，即行为障碍与结构性脑损伤直接相关。鉴于我们对灌注缺陷与急性中风损伤之间关系的了解，将特定的行为障碍归因于局部脑损伤存在很大的推测空间，因为这些障碍也可能反映出在传统 CT 和 MRI 扫描显示结构完整的脑区的神经血管功能异常。与急性中风相比，我们对慢性中风的脑灌注的理解要少得多。利用动脉自旋标记（ASL）MRI，我们检查了 17 例慢性左半球中风患者的灌注情况。结果显示，左半球灌注减少，主要发生在梗死周围组织。梗死面积增大与灌注减少之间也存在很强的关系。这些发现对病灶-症状映射研究以及依赖功能 MRI 研究慢性中风的研究都有影响。
