Interictal psychosis after stroke with forced normalization.
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Biomedical subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Tomoyuki Ohara.
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Antihypertensive therapy based on the angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor perindopril reduced the incidence of recurrent stroke in the Perindopril Protection against Recurrent Stroke Study (PROGRESS). The present study assessed the effect of perindopril on the 24-h blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive patients with lacunar infarction using ambulatory BP monitoring (ABPM). There was a 4-week observation period, a 4-week treatment period 1 (perindopril at 2 mg/day), and a 4-week treatment period 2 (perindopril at 4 mg/day). Twenty-seven hypertensive patients with lacunar infarction (10 dippers and 17 non-dippers) were enrolled. The average 24-h BP values were significantly decreased after both treatment periods. When the patients were divided into dippers and non-dippers, perindopril exhibited a different BP-lowering effect in the groups with these two circadian BP patterns. In dippers, daytime BP was significantly decreased, whereas nighttime BP was not, so an excessive fall of nighttime BP was not observed. In non-dippers, both daytime and nighttime BP were decreased, with a stronger BP-lowering effect at night. There was a significant inverse correlation between the magnitude of the change in nighttime BP and the night/day ratio. These results suggested that perindopril could induce a sustained decrease of the 24-h BP in patients with lacunar infarction. In particular, a more pronounced nighttime BP-lowering effect was observed in non-dippers. As the incidence of non-dippers is reported to be high among patients with cerebrovascular disease, better nighttime BP control by perindopril might have helped to improve the outcome of such patients in PROGRESS.
A lacunar infarct is defined as the occlusion of a single perforating artery. Certain researchers have proposed that patients with lacunar infarcts can be classified into two clinically distinct entities: patients with a single, symptomatic lacunar infarct, and patients with multiple lacunar infarcts together with hypertension and leukoaraiosis. The present study attempted to delineate the characteristics of lacunar infarcts and evaluate the validity of the aforementioned hypothesis. A total of 130 consecutive patients with first-time symptomatic lacunar infarct were studied. All patients were dichotomized into two groups according to two different kinds of models as follows. Model-1: patients with a single lacune and patients with multiple lacunes; and Model-2: patients with large lacune and patients with small lacune. Associated factors for the multiple lacune group compared with the single lacune group as well as the large lacune group compared with the small lacune group, were analyzed by multivariate logistic regression analysis. Associated factors included age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia, smoking, extracranial and intra-cranial vascular lesions, extent of lacunes and white matter lesions, progression status and blood pressure in the acute stage, and coagulation markers such as fibrinogen, thrombin-antithrombin complex, D-dimer, beta-thromboglobulin, platelet factor 4. Results for Model-1: hypertension (age-and sex-adjusted OR: 2.58, p = 0.017) and elevated systolic blood pressure (>160mmHg for the mean value during the first post-ictal week; OR: 2.55, p = 0.016) were significantly associated with the multiple lacune group. Large lacunes (>10mm in diameter) were negatively associated with the multiple lacune group (OR: 0.38, p = 0.017). Association between confluent white matter lesions and the multiple lacune group approached significance (OR: 2.16, p = 0.056). Results for Model-2: female sex (OR: 0.39, p = 0.021), mild stenosis of intracranial and extracranial arteries (<25%) (intracranial; OR: 5.42, p = 0.0042, extracranial; OR: 3.30, p = 0.016), progressing stroke (OR: 6.77, p<0.0001), and high levels of TAT (>3ng/ml) (OR: 2.80, p = 0.039) were significantly associated with the large lacune group. Multiple lacunes (OR: 0.38, p = 0.016) and confluent white matter lesions (OR: 0.28, p = 0.007) exhibited a significant negative association with the large lacune group. In conclusion, underlying vasculopathy in the presence of multiple lacunes may correspond to lipohyalinosis resulting from hypertension. Moreover, large lacune may correspond to microatheroma at the orifice of penetrating arteries.