Abstract:Objective To explore the clinical significance of the hyperdense middle cerebral artery sign on CT scan (HMCAS) in acute cerebral infarction. Methods The clinical and imaging data of 386 patients diagnosed as acute cerebral infarction in the Department of Neurology of our hospital were retrospectively analyzed. Results The recruited cases were divided into two groups according to whether the HMCAS appeared in the first CT examination, there were 125 cases in the HMCAS group (32.4%) and 261 cases in the no-HMCAS group (67.6%). The constituent ratios of anterior circulation cortex infarction, basal ganglia region infarction and corona radiata infarction were statistically different between the HMCAS group and the non-HMCAS group (P < 0.05). But there was no statistical difference in posterior circulation infarction (including brainstem, thalamus and occipital cortex) between the two groups (P > 0.05). Conclusions HMCAS occurs primarily in anterior circulation cortex, basal ganglia region and corona radiata infarction, and its constituent ratio is high in large area cerebral infarction.