Metabolic and clinical correlates of acute ischemic infarction.

We studied cerebral metabolism, anatomy, and clinical status in 36 patients with acute cerebral ischemia. Results from FDG-PET were compared with CT to find the relationships between the metabolic, anatomic, and clinical findings. Metabolic abnormalities seen on PET frequently were more extensive than the corresponding CT findings. The pattern of metabolic abnormality was significantly related to both the type of clinical syndrome and the degree of eventual recovery. No such relationships were found for the CT results. We conclude that studies of cerebral metabolism are of value in establishing prognosis after acute cerebral ischemia. Also, knowledge of the patterns of cerebral dysmetabolism provides a powerful means for the localization of clinical function.