Evaluation of recent cerebral infarction by computerized tomography.

Twenty patients with cerebral infarction were observed with serial computerized tomographic (CT) scans. Seventy percent of those infarctions showed a mass effect that had disappeared in all patients by the eighth week after the ictus. In 63%, there was enhancement after contrast infusion, with a definite temporal relationship to the day of onset of the neurological deficit. Twenty percent of the patients initially had normal CT scans that became abnormal weeks after the stroke. Radionuclide scans were positive in the patients who showed contrast enhancement, and the area of abnormal uptake correlated well with the area of enhancement. The timing of the performance of the CT scan in relation to the onset of neurological deficit is an important factor to consider when evaluating the stroke syndrome with CT.