Figure 14a. Cortical gyral enhancement in subacute thrombotic cerebral infarction. (a) Axial contrast-enhanced CT scan shows enhancement that is limited to the opercular surfaces, insula, and caudate nucleus head (all of which are gray matter). (b) Photograph of an axially sectioned gross specimen shows green staining, which is caused by bilirubin bound to serum albumin, and which outlines areas of the brain where the blood-brain-barrier is no longer intact. Note how the green stain is almost exclusively in the gray matter of the cortex (arrowheads), basal ganglia (*), caudate nucleus, and claustrum. In these areas, the healing process would have removed the infarcted tissue, resulting in encephalomalacia and atrophy, if the patient had not died (the jaundiced patient died 2 weeks after left internal carotid thrombosis caused infarction of the anterior and middle cerebral artery territories).