New Stroke Study Challenges Decades-Old Medical Beliefs

A study of 229 stroke patients found no link between lacunar stroke and fatty narrowing in large arteries.

Instead, lacunar stroke was strongly associated with widened brain arteries, pointing to small vessel disease as the likely driver.

The findings challenge older assumptions about the cause of this common stroke subtype.

They are already shaping trials such as LACI-3, which is testing aspirin, cilostazol, and isosorbide mononitrate.