Combining acute diffusion-weighted imaging and mean transmit time lesion volumes with National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale Score improves the prediction of acute stroke outcome.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to determine whether acute diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) and mean transit time (MTT) lesion volumes and presenting National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) can identify patients with acute ischemic stroke who will have a high probability of good and poor outcomes. METHODS: Fifty-four patients with acute ischemic stroke who had MRI within 9 hours of symptom onset and 3-month follow-up with modified Rankin scale were evaluated. Acute DWI and MTT lesion volumes and baseline NIHSS scores were calculated. Clinical outcomes were considered good if the modified Rankin Scale was 0 to 2. RESULTS: The 33 of 54 (61%) patients with good outcomes had significantly smaller DWI lesion volumes (P=0.0001), smaller MTT lesion volumes (P<0.0001), and lower NIHSS scores (P<0.0001) compared with those with poor outcomes. Receiver operating characteristic curves for DWI, MTT, and NIHSS relative to poor outcome had areas under the curve of 0.889, 0.854, and 0.930, respectively, which were not significantly different. DWI and MTT lesion volumes predicted outcome better than mismatch volume or percentage mismatch. All patients with a DWI volume >72 mL (13 of 54) and an NIHSS score >20 (6 of 54) had poor outcomes. All patients with an MTT volume of <47 mL (16 of 54) and an NIHSS score <8 (17 of 54) had good outcomes. Combining clinical and imaging thresholds improved prognostic yield (70%) over clinical (43%) or imaging (54%) thresholds alone (P=0.01). CONCLUSIONS: Combining quantitative DWI and MTT with NIHSS predicts good and poor outcomes with high probability and is superior to NIHSS alone.

Existence of the diffusion-perfusion mismatch within 24 hours after onset of acute stroke: dependence on proximal arterial occlusion.

PURPOSE: To assess the existence of a mismatch between lesions on diffusion-weighted (DW) and perfusion-weighted (PW) magnetic resonance (MR) images obtained within 24 hours after onset of acute stroke and to use mismatch data and angiographic evidence of proximal arterial occlusion (PAO) to investigate whether the existence of the mismatch depends on the existence of PAO. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this institutional review board-approved, HIPAA-compliant study, 109 retrospectively identified patients had undergone DW and PW imaging within 24 hours of stroke onset. Relative mismatch was computed as the difference between lesion volumes on mean transit time maps and DW images, divided by DW lesion volume. Computed tomographic (CT) angiography or MR angiography distinguished patients with PAO (n = 68) from those with no PAO (NPAO; n = 41). Eligibility for hypothetical thrombolysis was assessed with two different criteria: (a) one derived from the successful Desmoteplase in Acute Ischemic Stroke Trial (DIAS) and Dose Escalation of Desmoteplase for Acute Ischemic Stroke Trial (DEDAS), and (b) another requiring 160% mismatch. RESULTS: Of the 109 patients, 77 (71%) satisfied the DIAS-DEDAS eligibility criteria, and 61 (56%) satisfied the 160% criterion. The NPAO patients demonstrated decreasing eligibility with increasing time after onset by using DIAS-DEDAS criteria (P = .015) and showed a similar trend with the 160% criterion (P = .078). The NPAO patients were less likely to be eligible after 9 hours than before 9 hours (17% for >9 hours vs 72% for <9 hours with DIAS-DEDAS criteria, P = .002; and 8% for >9 hours vs 45% for <9 hours with 160% criterion, P = .033). However, PAO patients demonstrated a trend toward increasing eligibility with the DIAS-DEDAS criteria (P = .099) and no significant difference for after 9 hours versus before 9 hours (84% for >9 hours vs 78% for <9 hours with DIAS-DEDAS criteria, P = .742; and 68% for >9 hours vs 69% for <9 hours with 160% criterion, P > .999). CONCLUSION: Persistence of mismatch after 9 hours is common and occurs most often in patients with PAO.

CT angiography-source image hypoattenuation predicts clinical outcome in posterior circulation strokes treated with intra-arterial therapy.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to correlate CT angiography-source image (CTA-SI) parenchymal hypoattenuation with clinical outcome in patients with vertebrobasilar occlusion treated with intra-arterial thrombolysis. METHODS: In 16 patients with vertebrobasilar occlusion treated with intra-arterial thrombolysis, we graded CTA-SI parenchymal hypoattenuation in the medulla, pons, midbrain, thalamus, cerebellum, occipital lobe, inferior parietal lobe, and medial temporal lobe. The grading scale was: 0, no hypoattenuation; 1, <50% hypoattenuation; and 2, >50% hypoattenuation. On CTA, we assessed clot location and length and collaterals. Outcome was measured with modified Rankin score. RESULTS: Mean patient age was 68.3 years (range, 47 to 86 years), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale was 28 (range, 11 to 40), time to CTA was 5.2 hours (range, 0.69 to 15.32), and time from CTA to intra-arterial thrombolysis was 5 hours (range, 2.25 to 10.38 hours). There were 4 basilar, 2 vertebral, and 10 combined occlusions. Eleven patients had near complete, 4 had partial, and one had no recanalization. Independent outcome predictors measured as modified Rankin score at 3 months were CTA-SI pons and midbrain scores(cumulative r=0.81, P<0.001). For outcome dichotomized into death versus survival, the CTA-SI pons score (P=0.0037) was the only independent predictor. CONCLUSIONS: Hypoattenuation in the pons and midbrain on pretreatment CTA-SI correlates highly with clinical outcome in patients with vertebrobasilar occlusion treated with intra-arterial thrombolysis.

Quantitative assessment of core/penumbra mismatch in acute stroke: CT and MR perfusion imaging are strongly correlated when sufficient brain volume is imaged.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Our purpose was to determine (1) the correlation between quantitative CT and MR measurements of infarct core, penumbra, and mismatch; and (2) whether the difference between these measurements would alter patient selection for stroke clinical trials. METHODS: We studied 45 patients with acute middle cerebral artery stroke imaged a mean of 3.8 hours after onset (range, 0.48 to 8.35 hours) who underwent CT perfusion and MR diffusion (DWI)/perfusion imaging within 3 hours of each other. The DWI and MR-mean transit time (MTT) abnormalities were visually segmented using a semiautomated commercial analysis program. The CT-cerebral blood volume) and CT-MTT lesions were automatically segmented using a relative cerebral blood volume threshold of 0.56 and a relative MTT threshold of 1.50 on commercially available software. Percent mismatch was defined as [(MTT-DWI)/DWI volume]x100. Pearson correlation coefficients were calculated. RESULTS: There were significant correlations for DWI versus CT-cerebral blood volume lesion volumes (r2=0.88, P<0.001), for MR-MTT versus CT-MTT lesion volumes(r2=0.86, P<0.001), and for MR-MTT/DWI versus CT-MTT/CT-cerebral blood volume mismatch lesion volumes(r2=0.81, P<0.001). MR perfusion and CT perfusion agreed for determining: (1) infarct core < versus >or=100 mL in 41 of 45 (91.1%); (2) MTT lesion size < versus >2 cm diameter in 42 of 45 (93.3%); (3) mismatch < versus >20% in 41 of 45 (91.1%); and (4) inclusion versus exclusion from trial enrollment in 38 of 45 (84.4%) patients. Six of 7 disagreements were due to inadequate CT coverage. CONCLUSIONS: Advanced MR and CT perfusion imaging measurements of core/penumbra mismatch for patient selection in stroke trials are highly correlated when CT perfusion coverage is sufficient to include most of the ischemic region. Although MR is currently the preferred imaging method for determining core and penumbra, CT perfusion is comparable and potentially more available.