[Staged or bilateral malacias in the area of the middle cerebral or posterior cerebral arteries. Comparative study of the risk of multifocal stroke in 120 patients].

We studied and compared 120 cases with an infarction in the superficial area of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) or the posterior cerebral artery (PCA). Among the patients with an infarction of the MCA area, 8% had a capsular involvement and 3% a delayed contralateral sylvian infarction. Among the patients with an infarction of the PCA area, 35% had a thalamo-mesencephalic involvement and 23% a delayed contralateral occipital infarction. Thus, multifocal infarction was significantly more frequent in the PCA area than in the MCA area. No particular vascular risk factor could explain this difference, which may be related to general constitutional factors, such as the type of collateral supply or the vascular anatomy itself. In the PCA area only, we found a significant association between the severity of risk factors and occurrence of multifocal infarction.