Incomplete brain infarction

Abstract

We present a 70-year-old man who suffered two attacks of possible incomplete infarction. At the first attack, the responsible lesion was unclear on MRI including DWI, but demonstrated a high uptake of 99mTc-ECD SPECT during the acute phase; thereafter the lesion became atrophic with a low uptake on SPECT during the chronic phase. At the second attack, the responsible lesion revealed weakly hyperintense changes on DWI without marked changes on conventional modalities, but had a high uptake on SPECT and capillary blush on angiography during the acute phase. It is suggested that incomplete infarction can solely result in a massive and clinically critical lesion without an accompanying complete infarction. © 2010 The Japanese Society of Internal Medicine.