Silent microbleeds and hemorrhagic conversion of an embolic infarction

Abstract

We report a patient with multiple simultaneous embolic infarctions with localized hemorrhagic conversion. A 75-year-old male patient had several silent microbleeds (SMBs) exclusively in the cerebral cortex, and underwent angioplasty and stenting for bilateral carotid stenosis. He subsequently experienced embolic infarctions in the cortex and the striatum: the cortical infarction, where an SMB had been present, showed hemorrhagic conversion, whereas the striatal infarction did not. This case suggests that SMBs are indicators of an underlying hemorrhage-prone state.