Clinical and Imaging Analysis of a Cerebellar Watershed Infarction

Objective: To investigate the characteristics of vascular lesions in patients with a cerebellar watershed infarction. Methods: Clinical data from 178 cases of cerebellar infarction were collected with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan results, including diffusion weighted imaging (DWI), a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA), and computed tomography angiography (CTA). The cases were divided into cerebellar watershed and non-watershed infarctions based on lesion location, which was revealed by DWI. Forty-two cases met the criteria for a cerebellar watershed infarction. Based on the MRA/CTA results, the vertebrobasilar artery stenoses were divided into four categories (i.e., intracranial, extracranial, combined, and no detectable stenosis) to compare the vascular lesion characteristics from patients with a cerebellar watershed infarction and patients with a non-watershed infarction. Results: Patients with cerebellar watershed infarcts presented mild symptoms at onset and had a favorable prognosis. However, 90.5% of these patients had a vascular stenosis, which was higher than for patients with a cerebellar non-watershed infarction (74.3%). The four types of vascular lesions, intracranial, extracranial, combined, and no detectable stenosis, were 14.3%, 52.4%, 23.8%, and 9.5% in patients with a cerebellar watershed infarction and 33.8%, 16.2%, 24.3%, and 25.7% in patients with a non-watershed cerebellar infarction, respectively. Conclusion: Although patients with cerebellar watershed infarcts often had comparatively benign clinical manifestations and prognoses, such patients also had a high stenosis prevalence in major blood vessels, especially the extracranial segment in the vertebral artery, which required early intervention and treatment.