Background and Purpose-The somatotopic organization of the corticospinal fibers is of importance because it is related to certain stroke syndromes. Although it has been suggested that motor fibers are somatotopically arranged in the corona radiata, the evidence is still insufficient in human. Methods-The relative anteroposterior and mediolateral location of the lesions was measured on T2-weighted MRI in 28 patients who developed isolated motor deficit limited to the arm, leg, or bulbofacial muscles after a small corona radiata infarct. Results-The location of the lesions associated with bulbofacial, arm, and leg paresis showed anterolateral-toposteromedial distribution. Conclusions-The results suggest that motor fibers subserving the bulbofacial, arm, and leg muscles are somatotopically arranged at the level of the corona radiata.

The results of the present study indicate a specific association between the topographic patterns of thalamic infarcts and the stroke syndromes and aetiologies.

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Background: The time of neurological improvement (TNI) after acute ischemic stroke may have a predictive value. Methods: We evaluated 410 consecutive patients who were admitted within 12 hours of stroke onset. The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) was measured on admission and at 1, 3, 7, and 14 days. Neurological improvement was defined as an improvement in the NIHSS score by ≥2 points (NI2) or ≥4 points (NI4) or an NIHSS score of 0. Patients with a Modified Rankin scale (mRS) score of ≤2 were considered to have a good outcome. Results: Patients with earlier TNIs had a lower 3-month mRS score and a higher probability for a good outcome. In the binary and ordinal regression analyses, age, NIHSS score, atrial fibrillation and TNI were independently associated with a good outcome. Receiver operating characteristic curve analyses demonstrated that TNI2 had higher sensitivity and lower specificity than TNI4. The best threshold for predicting outcome was day 3 for TNI2 and day 14 for TNI4. Conclusions: These results suggest that TNI is independently associated with functional outcome at 90 days. TNI2 may be more useful than TNI4 for early prediction of stroke outcome.