No abstract

Background and Purpose-Nonlacunar cerebral infarcts are presumed to be caused by thromboembolism from the heart or extracranial arteries, whereas lacunar infarcts are thought to be caused by small vessel disease. We investigated to what extent arterial calcifications differ between nonlacunar and lacunar ischemic strokes. Methods-We studied 820 consecutive patients with transient ischemic attack or ischemic stroke in the anterior circulation who underwent multidetector computed tomography angiography and had no rare cause of stroke.