Cerebral small vessel disease is the most important cause of lacunar infarction (LI) and intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). It is generally postulated that, in its early stages, the vascular lesion engenders vessel wall fragility and ICH. But if rupture dose not occur, segmental vessel occlusion evolves, producing LI. It may be a common aging phenomenon that is exacerbated by hypertension and diabetes mellitus. This study was performed to evaluate risk factors of LI and ICH. We reviewed retrospectively the medical records of 690 patients (254 LI, 436 ICH) with stroke who were admitted to Keimyung University Dongsan Medical Center from January 1995 to December 1998. The major risk factors including age, sex, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and several minor risk factors were analyzed in these patients. Older age (p＜0.01), male sex(p＜0.01), hypertension with treatment(p＜0.01), hypertension with long duration(p＜0.01) and hypertriglyceridemia(p＜0.01), cigarette smoking(p<0.01) were significantly more frequent in LI. Younger age(p＜0.01), female sex(p＜0.01) and hypertension without treatment(p＜0.01), hypertension with short duration(p＜0.01) were more frequent in ICH.
The prevalence, duration and treatment of diabetes mellitus were not different between these two groups. This study show that the age, sex, treatment of hypertension, duration of hypertension and cigarette smoking seem to be significant risk factors between LI and ICH.
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