Background and purpose: We sought first to characterize the clinical syndromes of patients found to have angiographic, computed tomographic, or magnetic resonance imaging scan indexes of anterior choroidal artery territory infarction and then to determine the frequency of involvement of the periventricular corona radiata in such patients.
Methods: Sixteen patients were selected based on angiographically, or surgically, documented occlusion of the anterior choroidal artery or based on infarcts whose minimal lesions included the anterior choroidal territory as defined by Kolisko and Beevor. We mapped the lesions using the templates of the Matsui and Hirano atlas and entered them into a computer using a program allowing overlapping diagrams of the cases.
Results: The anatomic distributions were fairly uniform, all involving the lower portion of the posterior limb of the internal capsule, the medial pallidum (75% of cases), cerebral peduncle in 44%, thalamus in 37%, and the medial temporal lobe in 38%. None extended outside these areas to include the upper corona radiata. The clinical picture corresponded to the well-established neurological syndrome featuring motor deficits with varying degrees of visual field and sensory impairments. Only two showed hypesthetic ataxic hemiparesis.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the syndrome of anterior choroidal artery infarction is fairly uniform; ataxic hemiparesis occurs infrequently; and lesions in the lateral ventricular wall and the corona radiata are not part of the territory supplied by the anterior choroidal artery.