The aim of this multicenter study was to demonstrate the distribution pattern of atherosclerotic stenosis and its trend with aging between extracranial and intracranial arteries and its distribution between the anterior and posterior circulations in Chinese patients hospitalized with ischemic stroke. In addition, the risk factors for the distribution pattern were illustrated. From June 2015 to May 2016, 9,346 patients with ischemic stroke from 20 hospitals were enrolled. Carotid artery ultrasonography and transcranial color-coded sonography/transcranial Doppler were used to evaluate the extracranial and intracranial arteries. The distribution pattern of atherosclerotic stenosis and its trend with aging were analyzed. Logistic regression was used to analyze the risk factors for the distribution pattern. Among the 9,346 patients, 2,882 patients (30.8%) had at least one artery with a degree of stenosis ≥50%. Among patients with arterial stenosis, the proportion of patients with intracranial artery stenosis was higher than those with extracranial artery stenosis (52.6% vs. 27.6%), and the proportion of anterior circulation artery stenosis was higher than that in the posterior circulation (52.2% vs.26.2%). With aging, the proportion of intracranial artery stenosis alone decreased; at the same time, the proportion of extracranial artery stenosis and extracranial plus intracranial artery stenosis increased (trend χ2=6.698, P=0.001). Hypertension (OR 1.416, P=0.008) and family history of stroke (OR 1.479, P=0.014) were risk factors for intracranial artery stenosis. Male, aging, and smoking were factors more related to extracranial artery stenosis. Aging (OR 1.022, P<0.001) and hypertension (OR 1.392, P=0.019) were related to posterior circulation artery stenosis. Intracranial arteries and anterior circulation arteries were susceptible to stenosis in Chinese patients with ischemic stroke. However, the distribution pattern of atherosclerotic stenosis was dynamic and varied with aging. Aging and different risk factors contribute to this distribution pattern.

Orthostatic hypotension (OH) is an early non-motor manifestation of Parkinson's disease (PD). However, the underlying mechanism of hemodynamic changes in patients with PD and OH remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate the dynamic cerebral autoregulation changes in patients with PD with OH. Ninety patients with PD and 20 age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. The patients' non-invasive blood pressure (BP) and cerebral blood flow velocity were simultaneously recorded at supine and orthostatic positions during the active standing test (AST). Transfer function analysis was used to determine autoregulatory parameters including gain [i.e., damping effect of dynamic cerebral autoregulation (dCA) on the magnitude of BP oscillation] and phase difference (i.e., the time delay of the cerebral blood flow response to BP). Sixteen patients (17.8%) in the PD population were diagnosed with OH (PD-OH). The AST results were normal for 74 patients (82.2%) (PD-NOR). In the supine position, the PD-OH group had a lower phase degree than the PD-NOR group (50.3 ± 23.4 vs. 72.6 ± 32.2 vs. 68.9 ± 12.1, p = 0.020); however, no significant difference was found upon comparing with the HC group. In the orthostatic position, the normalized gain was significantly higher for the symptomatic OH group than for the asymptomatic OH group and HC group (1.50 ± 0.58 vs. 0.97 ± 0.29 vs. 1.10 ± 0.31, p = 0.019). A symptomatic OH in the PD population indicates an impaired cerebral autoregulation ability in the orthostatic position. Cerebral autoregulation tends to be impaired in the supine position in the OH population.

Aims: To evaluate pulsatility index (PI) in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) who underwent endovascular thrombectomy (EVT).Methods: Patients were retrospectively recruited if their stroke were secondary to middle cerebral artery (MCA) occlusion and achieved full recanalization after EVT. Transcranial Doppler was performed within 24‐hour post‐EVT. The primary outcome was correlation between the MCA‐PI on the affected side and 3‐month functional outcome, with modified Rankin scale (mRS) ≥5 indicated extremely poor functional outcomes.Results: Totally, 170 patients were included. High MCA‐PI was positively related to the 3‐month mRS score (r = 0.288, p < 0.001). The highest quartile of the MCA‐PI was associated with a high incidence of extremely poor functional outcomes (adjusted OR, 13.33; 95% CI, 2.65–67.17; adjusted p = 0.002) after adjusting for confounding factors. The predictive capacity of the MCA‐PI for extremely poor functional outcomes was good (area under the curve, 0.755; 95% CI, 0.655–0.854; p < 0.001), and its cutoff value for predicting extremely poor outcomes was 1.04, with a sensitivity of 65.6% and specificity of 78.3%.Conclusion: The MCA‐PI on the affected side is a prognostic biomarker in patients who have undergone stroke thrombectomy. An elevated MCA‐PI may be prognostically valuable for predicting extremely poor functional outcomes.