• Xiao-Yue Hu, Zheng-Xi Li, Hui-Qin Liu, Min Zhang, Meng-Li Wei, Shan Fang, Wei Chen, Hui Pan, Jin-Xiu Huang, Yi-Min Zhu, and Jian-Ren Liu.
• Department of Neurology, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital Affiliated to Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, People's Republic of China.
• Neuroradiology. 2013 Feb 1;55(3):291-5.

IntroductionVertebral artery hypoplasia (VAH), which has been found in about 10 % of normal individuals, does not produce symptoms but may be associated with an increased risk of cerebral posterior circulation ischemic (PCI) stroke. The aims of this study were to determine the prevalence of VAH in Chinese patients with cerebral infarction and investigate whether VAH is an independent risk factor for PCI stroke.MethodsThe medical records of 841 Chinese stroke patients were reviewed retrospectively. All patients underwent either cervical contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA) or cervical computed tomography angiography (CTA). There is no standard definition of VAH; we defined it as a vertebral artery < 2 mm in diameter and the whole artery was slim or absent on CE-MRA or CTA. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed to identify significant independent risk factors for PCI stroke.ResultsThere were 230 patients (27.3 %) diagnosed with PCI stroke and 91 patients diagnosed with VAH (10.8 %). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that VAH, male gender, and stenosis of the posterior circulation were independent risk factors for PCI stroke.ConclusionsOur results show that VAH is not rare in Chinese patients with stroke and that its presence increases the risk of PCI stroke.

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