Is stroke still affecting your brain years after occurrence?

This study used brain scans to investigate long-term brain damage in stroke survivors.

A stroke occurs when there is a disturbance of blood supply to a part of the brain. This can be caused by a blood clot in the brain (ischemic stroke) or a burst blood vessel (hemorrhagic stroke). Both types of stroke result in a lack of oxygen and food reaching the brain tissue leading to brain damage.

Brain neurons (cells in the brain that transmit nerve signals) lack the ability to repair, therefore, once the cells have died the result is permanent. The area of neuron death is called a lesion. Little is known what happens to the size of brain lesion over time.

This study investigated what changes occur to the size of brain lesions and the extent of cell death (atrophy) in patients that have suffered with a post-stroke lesion in the long-term.

Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans were carried out on 56 stroke survivors. Their ages ranged from 36-90 years and the time since stroke ranged from 3 months to 20 years. Patients had an MRI scan on their first visit and had another scan between 2 months and 6 years after.

The study found that lesion areas expanded more in patients who had longer time-intervals between imaging sessions. This means that a part of their brain was shrinking over time. It was found that the overall cell death rate was 0.95% per year.

This study concluded that stroke lesions continue to expand many years after stroke.

It is not yet known what effect chronic stroke lesions have on brain function, as patients with stroke are still able to improve their disabilities over time.