Marina Roje-Bedeković

Stroke Caused by Lung Cancer Invading the Left Atrium

We describe a 59-year-old stroke patient presented with sudden onset left side weakness and a speech disorder due to a major acute cerebral infarction in the area of the right middle cerebral artery, right posterior cerebral artery, and small infarctions in the area of the left middle and left posterior cerebral artery. For the previous month, the patient had been feeling weak and had no appetite. The patient had not been previously seriously ill. A chest x-ray showed a large mass in the upper zone of the right lung. Chest computed tomography scan and echocardiography were performed and revealed advanced lung cancer invading the left atrium. Spontaneous tumor embolism is a rare cause of stroke and should be considered in the differential diagnosis of stroke in a cancer patient. Also, sometimes stroke can be the first manifestation of advanced cancer.

Hemispheric Asymmetry of Visual Cortical Response by Means of Functional Transcranial Doppler

We assessed the visual evoked response and investigated side-to-side differences in mean blood flow velocities (MBFVs) by means of functional transcranial Doppler (fTCD) in 49 right-handed patients with severe internal carotid artery (ICA) stenosis and 30 healthy volunteers, simultaneously in both posterior cerebral arteries (PCAs) using 2 MHz probes, successively in the dark and during the white light stimulation. Statistically significant correlation (P = 0.001) was shown in healthy and in patients (P < 0.05) between MBFV in right PCA in physiological conditions and MBFV in right PCA during the white light stimulation and in the dark. The correlation between MBVF in right PCA and contralateral left PCA was not statistically significant (P > 0.05). The correlation between ipsilateral left PCA was significantly higher than the one with contralateral right PCA (P < 0.05). There is a clear trend towards the lateralisation of the visual evoked response in the right PCA.