Lobar cerebral hemorrhages: Acute clinical syndromes in 26 cases

Abstract

The acute syndromes and CT findings are described in 26 cases of spontaneous cerebral hemorrhage. Occipital hemorrhage (11 cases) caused severe pain around the ipsilateral eye and dense hemianopia. Left temporal hemorrhage (7 cases) began with mild pain in or just anterior to the ear, fluent dysphasia with poor auditory comprehension but relatively good repetition, and a visual deficit subtending less than a hemianopia. Frontal hemorrhage (4 cases) caused a distinctive syndrome beginning with severe contralateral arm weakness, minimal leg and face weakness, and frontal headache. Parietal hemorrhage (3 cases) began with anterior temporal (“temple”) headache and hemisensory deficit, sometimes involving the trunk to the midline. One patient had a right temporal hemorrhage. Spontaneous lobar hemorrhage and branch artery embolism in the same region produce similar clinical syndromes. Headache is a first and prominent symptom. A rapid but not instantaneous onset over several minutes, when combined with one of the typical syndromes, suggests lobar hemorrhage rather than other types of stroke. Ancillary investigations (including CT scanning, angiography in 11 patients, and autopsy in 4) disclosed 2 patients with bleeding diatheses due to warfarin, 2 with arteriovenous malformations, and 1 with metastatic tumor. Only 8 of the 26 patients had chronic hypertension (blood pressure greater than 130/85 mm Hg), suggesting that hypertension is not an etiological factor in most lobar hemorrhages.