Acute ischaemia of the right lenticulostriate territory results in obscuration of the lentiform nucleus ("blurred basal ganglia"), which appears hypoattenuated because of cytotoxic oedema. Dense MCA sign as a result of thrombus or embolus.
The detection of the extension of acute ischaemic brain parenchyma with non-enhanced CT scanning was facilitated by soft-copy visual review at a PACS workstation by using variable, non-standard window width and centre level settings (a so-called "stroke window", the second series) 2.