BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Diabetes mellitus may impair endothelium-dependent responses in cerebral arterioles. The basilar artery dilates in response to increases in blood flow. The goal of this study was to examine effects of diabetes mellitus on "flow-mediated" and endothelium-dependent dilatation of the basilar artery. METHODS Diabetes was induced in rats with 50 mg/kg streptozotocin. Six mon...

Acute basilar artery occlusion is a neurological emergency. Unlike anterior circulation stroke presenting with hemiparesis, the symptoms of basilar artery occlusion are challenging to recognise in the emergency setting. Basilar artery occlusion can rarely lead to ischaemia of the auditory pathways, resulting in bizarre, positive auditory hallucinations. Here, we report two cases of basilar arte...

This case report describes the use of high-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI) to visualize basilar artery atherosclerotic plaque in a patient with a pontine stroke. HRMRI with three-dimensional image acquisition was used to visualize plaque in several planes to localize arterial wall pathology. Fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequences of the basilar artery showed wall th...

Introduction The anatomy of the posterior circulation is very complex and variable. The basilar artery which forms the spine of posterior cerebral circulation usually terminates by dividing into two posterior cerebral arteries [1]. Basilar termination is the most frequent site of aneurysm [2]. The variations may also alter the relationships with and compress oculomotor nerve [3]. There are, how...

We examined the hypothesis that dilatation of the basilar artery in response to activation of ATP-sensitive potassium channels is impaired in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRSP). Changes in basilar artery diameter in response to aprikalim, a direct activator of ATP-sensitive potassium channels, were measured in anesthetized SHRSP and normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats through...

The goal of this study was to test the hypothesis that the synthesis/release of hydroxyl radical accounts for impaired nitric oxide synthase-dependent dilatation of the basilar artery during diabetes mellitus. We measured the diameter of the basilar artery in vivo in nondiabetic and diabetic rats (streptozotocin, 50-60 mg/kg ip) in response to nitric oxide synthase-dependent agonists (acetylcho...

Symptomatic hemorrhagic transformation is common in supratentorial and cerebellar infarction, but is rare in brainstem infarction. It is seldom reported in basilar artery occlusion. Although early arterial recanalization by thrombolytic agent has became the new trend of treatment, for some neurologists anticoagulant is still a conventional alternative treatment of basilar artery occlusion, espe...

Dilatation of cerebral arterioles in response to arachidonic acid is dependent on activity of cyclooxygenase. In this study, we examined mechanisms that mediate dilatation of the basilar artery in response to arachidonate. Diameter of the basilar artery (baseline diameter = 216 +/- 7 micrometer) (means +/- SE) was measured using a cranial window in anesthetized rats. Arachidonic acid (10 and 10...

Focal signal intensity loss of the basilar artery on MR angiograms obtained in a 69-year-old man was considered to be caused by an embolus, and thrombolytic therapy was initiated. On the follow-up MR angiograms, the same oval signal intensity loss of the basilar artery was observed. On the basis of a virtual endoscopic look into the basilar artery, the diagnosis of a rare vascular anomaly--a fe...

We present a case of a 55-year-old woman with pontine infarction and fenestration of the basilar artery that was demonstrated using virtual endoscopy. The patient had motor weakness of the right side with sudden onset. Diffusion- and T2-weighted MR images revealed high signal intensities in the left pontine regions, and an MR angiographic examination showed the double-lumen sign of the basilar ...