Treatment and Clinical Outcome in Patients With Basilar Artery Occlusion To the Editor: We read with great interest the recent article by Lindsberg and Mattle1 in which they found, in a review of published case series, that patients with basilar artery occlusion treated with intra-arterial and intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) have similar outcomes. We wonder whether they also compared their 2 gro...

Flow-mediated dilatation has been described mainly in peripheral conduit arteries. The goal of this study was to examine mechanisms and functional implications of flow-mediated dilatation in large cerebral arteries in vivo. Vessel diameter and velocity of blood flow through the basilar artery were measured using a cranial window in 45 anesthetized rats. Mean blood flow velocity through the basi...

The basilar artery as the origin of the ophthalmic artery is extremely rare. A 48-year-old patient had undergone angiography for suspicion of a right middle cerebral artery aneurysm. No aneurysm was detected. Vertebral artery injections demonstrated the left ophthalmic artery originating from the basilar trunk. Current embryologic theories fall short in explaining this entity. Awareness of neur...

PURPOSE To report isolated upgaze palsy in a patient with a dolichoectatic vertebrobasilar artery. CASE REPORT We report a 48-year-old man who showed upgaze palsy and convergence insufficiency. The left vertebral artery and basilar artery were shown to be greatly expanded, elongated and tortuous in cranial magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The vertebrobasilar artery runs along the sulcus basi...

A 40-year-old man suffered chronic progressive symptoms of brainstem compression after undergoing endosaccular coil placement in a ruptured large basilar bifurcation aneurysm. Radiographical examinations showed coil compaction and regrowth of the aneurysmal mass with perifocal mesencephalic edema. The symptoms did not resolve even after additional clip occlusion of the upper basilar artery and ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Following our treatment of a patient with hypoglycemia-induced brain stem symptoms, we examined the possible mechanisms for hypoglycemia presenting as basilar artery disease. CASE DESCRIPTION We describe a patient who had progressive brain stem symptoms due to a diet-induced hypoglycemia initially diagnosed as basilar artery thrombosis. Symptoms ceased immediately after...

Basilar artery thrombosis has high morbidity and mortality. Though intra-arterial thrombolytics have proven efficacy in the treatment of acute basilar artery occlusion, the elevation of procoagulant factors in the blood after intra-arterial thrombolysis could result in subsequent thrombus formation and clinical deterioration. Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors have been shown to reduce this eleva...

Basilar artery occlusion may be associated with a poor prognosis in the absence of recanalization. Choices in aggressive treatment for this potentially fatal condition vary from intra-arterial or intravenous thrombolysis, endovascular removal, or a combination of the two, with adjunct anti-coagulation therapy. These therapies have proven to be effective in recanalization, whereas conservative m...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE During cerebral ischemia, both hypoxia and hypercapnia appear to produce marked dilatation of the cerebral arteries. Hypercapnia and hypoxia may be accompanied by extracellular and intracellular acidosis, which is another potent dilator of cerebral arteries. However, the precise mechanism by which acidosis produces dilatation of the cerebral arteries is not fully understo...

BACKGROUND Basilar artery thrombosis remains a significant clinical problem, and no reproducible animal model has been established to study the stroke within the vertebrobasilar distribution. We report a study designed to pilot test a novel model of brainstem stroke in rabbits, created by selective endovascular occlusion of the basilar artery. METHODS Basilar artery occlusion was induced in 8...