Factors associated with occurrence of large vessel and lacunar cerebral infarctions.

A stroke registry was developed to determine the localizing value of various clinical data. Adequate localization was achieved in 98% of 246 patients with infarcts. Among 212 male patients with cerebral infarcts not due to cardiogenic embolism or an unusual etiology, there were 152 with large-vessel and 59 with lacunar infarcts. Logistic regression analysis of factors associated with large vessel and lacunar stroke identified myocardial infarction on ECG as the only statistically significant variable; its presence was associated with an odds ratio for lacunar infarction of 0.19 (95% confidence interval 0.06-0.66) (P = 0.009). Logistic regression analysis of factors associated with anterior and posterior circulation large vessel stroke identified pack years of smoking as the only statistically significant variable; the odds ratio for posterior circulation infarction for a 10-year increment in pack years of smoking was 0.83 (95% confidence interval 0.73-0.94) (P = 0.0035).