Abstract:

Objective To investigate the relationship between the neurological deficit and carotid atherosclerotic plaque in patients with acute cerebral infarction(CI). Methods From August 2015 to December 2019, 1 022 patients with CI were selected from Ruijin Hospital. According to National Institute of Health stroke scale(NIHSS) score, the patients were divided into mild group(n=572) and moderate to severe group(n=450). Meanwhile, according to carotid color Doppler ultrasound, all patients were divided into non-carotid plaque group(n=365) and carotid plaque group(n=657). Furthermore, the carotid plaque group was divided into single plaque group(n=249), double plaque group(n=91) and multiple plaque group (n=317) based on the number of plaques, and according to the echo characteristics and the plaque stability, the plaque group was divided into stable plaque group (n=316) and unstable plaque group (n=341). The difference of the incidence of carotid plaque between the mild and moderate to severe group was analyzed. Results There were 71.8%(262/365) mild patients in the non-plaque group and 43.1%(283/657) mild patients in the plaque group. There was significant difference between the two groups（χ²=57.604, P<0.01）. There was significant difference in the proportion of moderate to severe patients among single plaque, double plaque and multiple plaque groups（χ²=57.604, P<0.01). The proportion of unstable plaque in the moderate to severe group（57.4%） was higher than that in the mild group(45.8%). Multivariate Logistic regression analysis showed that the possibility of NIHSS>3 in the plaque group was 3.691 times higher than that in non-plaque group. Conclusions The severity of neurological deficit in patients with acute cerebral infarction may be related to the incidence of carotid atherosclerotic plaques, the number and character of plaques.

Key words: Cerebral infarction, Neurological impairment score, Carotid atherosclerotic plaque