Clinical and radiological characteristics of controls (n = 83) and patients (n = 91) with unilateral pontine or PICA infarcts
| Controls (n = 83) | Patients (n = 91) | p Value | |
| General demographic data | |||
| Age (year) (mean (SD)) | 62.5 (11.7) | 63.6 (11.6) | 0.526 |
| Sex (% men) | 49 (59.0) | 55 (60.0) | 0.850 |
| Risk factors (n (%)) | |||
| Hypertension | 65 (71.4) | ||
| Diabetes mellitus | 35 (38.5) | ||
| Smoking | 30 (33.0) | ||
| Previous stroke | 18 (19.8) | ||
| Hyperlipidaemia | 22 (24.2) | ||
| Direction of vascular deformations | |||
| Direction of dominant flow VA (n) | 0.803 | ||
| R side | 27 | 28 | |
| L side | 56 | 63 | |
| Direction of BA curvature (n) | 0.007 | ||
| R side | 45 | 68 | |
| L side | 29 | 21 | |
| Visually straight BA | 9 | 2 | |
| Degree of BA curvature (n) | <0.001 | ||
| Grade 0 | 9 | 2 | |
| Grade 1 | 65 | 41 | |
| Grade 2 | 9 | 35 | |
| Grade 3 | 0 | 13 | |
| Degree of BA height (n) | <0.001 | ||
| Grade 1 | 82 | 73 | |
| Grade 2 | 1 | 17 | |
| Grade 3 | 0 | 1 | |
| Diameter of arteries (mm) | |||
| BA (mean (SD)) | 3.17 (0.70) | 3.20 (0.56) | 0.759 |
| R VA (mean (SD)) | 2.35 (0.82) | 1.95 (0.68) | 0.001 |
| L VA (mean (SD)) | 2.48 (0.72) | 2.48 (0.74) | 0.998 |
BA, basilar artery; L, left; PICA, posterior inferior cerebellar artery; R, right; VA, vertebral artery.