Quantitative Assessment of Chronic Thalamic Stroke

SUMMARY: The procedure presented quantitatively assesses thalamic lesions in the chronic phase of an ischemic episode. The structural MR images of 19 patients with ischemia in the thalamus were assessed by radiologic inspection. An independent rater allocated the damage to the thalamic nuclei. The assessments showed 89% accordance with the radiologic inspection (P .001). This procedure ranks the extent of the damage to thalamic nuclei and accounts for postacute rearrangement of the neural tissue. ABBREVIATIONS ILN intralaminar nuclei of the thalamus; MD mediodorsal nucleus of the thalamus; MID midline nuclei of the thalamus; PU pulvinar; VA ventral anterior nucleus of the thalamus; VP ventroposterior nucleus of the thalamus; VLa ventrolateral nucleus of the thalamus, anterior portion; VM ventromedial nucleus of the thalamus