Introduction: Stroke characteristics do not inform much about its etiology, even if they can suggest a specific mechanism. We thought that multiple vertebrobasilar infarcts could be related with embolism, namely cardioembolism.
Patients and methods: From a hospital prospective registry of stroke we retrieved 73 cases of acute non-lacunar vertebrobasilar infarcts, without previous episodes of stroke in any territory or vertebrobasilar transient ischemic accidents (TIA). Two groups were compared: patients with single cerebral posterior artery infarct (49) and patients with multiple vertebrobasilar infarcts (24), in respect to conventional risk factors for cerebrovascular disease, ancillary procedures performed, and associated pathologic conditions, as possible infarct pathogenesis.
Results: Proportions of risk factors and ancillary procedures performed were similar in both groups, except for hypercholesterolemia, which was more frequent in multiple infarcts, and for transcranial Doppler, which was performed more frequently in multiple infarcts. In multiple infarct group, cardioemboligenic pathology was more frequent, as were medium-high emboligenic risk cardiac diseases and atrial fibrillation, although the difference did not reach statistical significance.
Conclusions: Our results support the hypothesis that multiple non-lacunar vertebrobasilar infarcts, from a first ever stroke event, suggest cardioembolic etiology, and recommend performing an exhaustive cardiac investigation.