High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging-based radiomic features aid in selecting endovascular candidates among patients with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.

OBJECTIVES: Cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) can cause sinus obstruction and stenosis, with potentially fatal consequences. High-resolution magnetic resonance imaging (HRMRI) can diagnose CVST qualitatively, although quantitative screening methods are lacking for patients refractory to anticoagulation therapy and who may benefit from endovascular treatment (EVT). Thus, in this study, we used radiomic features (RFs) extracted from HRMRI to build machine learning models to predict response to drug therapy and determine the appropriateness of EVT. MATERIALS AND METHODS: RFs were extracted from three-dimensional T1-weighted motion-sensitized driven equilibrium (MSDE), T2-weighted MSDE, T1-contrast, and T1-contrast MSDE sequences to build radiomic signatures and support vector machine (SVM) models for predicting the efficacy of standard drug therapy and the necessity of EVT. RESULTS: We retrospectively included 53 patients with CVST in a prospective cohort study, among whom 14 underwent EVT after standard drug therapy failed. Thirteen RFs were selected to construct the RF signature and CVST-SVM models. In the validation dataset, the sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve performance for the RF signature model were 0.833, 0.937, and 0.977, respectively. The radiomic score was correlated with days from symptom onset, history of dyslipidemia, smoking, fibrin degradation product, and D-dimer levels. The sensitivity, specificity, and area under the curve for the CVST-SVM model in the validation set were 0.917, 0.969, and 0.992, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The CVST-SVM model trained with RFs extracted from HRMRI outperformed the RF signature model and could aid physicians in predicting patient responses to drug treatment and identifying those who may require EVT.

Temporal trends and rural-urban disparities in cerebrovascular risk factors, in-hospital management and outcomes in ischaemic strokes in China from 2005 to 2015: a nationwide serial cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Stroke is the leading cause of mortality in China, with limited evidence of in-hospital burden obtained from nationwide surveys. We aimed to monitor and track the temporal trends and rural-urban disparities in cerebrovascular risk factors, management and outcomes from 2005 to 2015. METHODS: We used a two-stage random sampling survey to create a nationally representative sample of patients admitted for ischaemic stroke in 2005, 2010 and 2015. We sampled participating hospitals with an economic-geographical region-stratified random-sampling approach first and then obtained patients with a systematic sampling approach. We weighed our survey data to estimate the national-level results and assess changes from 2005 to 2015. RESULTS: We analysed 28 277 ischaemic stroke admissions from 189 participating hospitals. From 2005 to 2015, the estimated national hospital admission rate for ischaemic stroke per 100 000 people increased (from 75.9 to 402.7, Ptrend<0.001), and the prevalence of risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidaemia and current smoking, increased. The composite score of diagnostic tests for stroke aetiology assessment (from 0.22 to 0.36, Ptrend<0.001) and secondary prevention treatments (from 0.46 to 0.70, Ptrend<0.001) were improved. A temporal decrease was found in discharge against medical advice (DAMA) (from 15.2% (95% CI 13.7% to 16.7%) to 8.6% (8.1% to 9.0%); adjusted Ptrend=0.046), and decreases in in-hospital mortality (0.7% in 2015 vs 1.8% in 2005; adjusted OR (aOR) 0.52; 95% CI 0.32 to 0.85) and the composite outcome of in-hospital mortality or DAMA (8.4% in 2015 vs 13.9% in 2005; aOR 0.65; 95% CI 0.47 to 0.89) were observed. Disparities between rural and urban hospitals narrowed; however, disparities persisted in in-hospital management (brain MRI: rural-urban difference from -14.4% to -11.2%; cerebrovascular assessment: from -20.3% to -16.7%; clopidogrel: from -2.1% to -10.3%; anticoagulant for atrial fibrillation: from -10.9% to -8.2%) and in-hospital outcomes (DAMA: from 2.7% to 5.0%; composite outcome of in-hospital mortality or DAMA: from 2.4% to 4.6%). CONCLUSIONS: From 2005 to 2015, improvements in hospital admission and in-hospital management for ischaemic stroke in China were found. A temporal improvement in DAMA and improvements in in-hospital mortality and the composite outcome of in-hospital mortality or DAMA were observed. Disparities between rural and urban hospitals generally narrowed but persisted.

Risk assessment of deep-vein thrombosis after acute stroke: a prospective study using clinical factors.

AIMS: Deep-vein thrombosis (DVT) represents a serious complication in acute stroke patients with pulmonary embolus (PE) as a potential outcome. Prediction of DVT may help with formulating a proper prevention strategy. To assess of the risk of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) in acute stroke patients, we developed and validated a clinical score in a cohort study. METHODS: Incidence of Deep Venous Thrombosis after Acute Stroke in China (INVENT-China) is a multicenter prospective cohort study. The potential predictive variables for DVT at baseline were collected, and the presence of DVT was evaluated using ultrasonography on the 14 ± 3 days. Data were randomly assigned to either a training data set or a test data set. Multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to develop risk scores to predict DVT in the training data set and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve to validate the score in the test data set. RESULTS: From 2006-2007, 862 hospital-based acute stroke patients were enrolled in China. The overall incidence of DVT after acute stroke within two weeks was 12.4% (95%CI 10.3-14.7%). A seven-point score derived in the training data set (age [≥65 years = 1], sex [female gender = 1]), obesity [BMI ≥ 25 kg/m(2) = 1], active cancer [yes = 2], stroke subtype [cerebral hemorraghe = 1], muscle weakness [≥2 on Lower limb NIHSS score = 1] was highly predictive of 14-day risk of DVT(c statistic = 0.70, 95% CI, 0.64-0.76, P < 0.001), in the overall study population(c statistic = 0.65, 95% CI 0.59-0.70, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: This clinical score may help identify acute stroke patients with high risk of DVT. In addition, it also serves as a platform to develop further models of DVT prediction in stroke patients based on clinical factors.

A new diagnostic algorithm for vascular cognitive impairment: the proposed criteria and evaluation of its reliability and validity.

BACKGROUND: Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) is considered to be the most common pattern of cognitive impairment. We aimed to devise a diagnostic algorithm for VCI, and evaluate the reliability and validity of our proposed criteria. METHODS: We based our new algorithm on previous literature, a Delphi consensus method, and preliminary testing. First, successive 100 patients with cerebrovascular disease (CVD) in hospital underwent a structured medical examination. Twenty-five case vignettes fulfilled the proposed criteria of diagnosis for probable or possible VCI were divided into three subtype categories: vascular cognitive impairment, no dementia (VCIND), vascular dementia (VaD) or mixed VCI/Alzheimer's disease (AD). Inter-raters reliability was assessed using a Fleiss kappa analysis. Convergent validity was also evaluated by correlation coefficients (r) between the proposed key points for each subtype and the currently accepted criteria. Forty-five patients with probable VCI were examined to determine the accuracy of identification for each subtype. RESULTS: The proposed criteria showed clinical diagnostic validity for VCI, and were able to define probable, possible and definite VCI, three VCI subtypes, and vascular causes. There was good consensus between experts (Cronbach's alpha = 0.96 for both rounds). Significant moderate to good items-total correlations were found for two questionnaires (50-r range, 0.40 - 0.97 and 0.41 - 0.99, respectively). Significant slight and moderate inter-raters reliability were obtained for VCI (k = 0.13) and three VCI subtypes (k = 0.45). Furthermore, good convergent validity was observed in a comparison of significant correlations between criteria: good (4-r range, 0.75 - 0.92) to perfect (3-r = 1.00) validity for the VCIND subtype, and moderate to good validity for the VaD subtype (1-r = 0.46; 5-r range, 0.76 - 0.92) and for the mixed VCI/AD subtype (r = 0.92 and 1.00; 4-r range, 0.47 - 0.70). Importantly, the area under receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves for the subtypes of VCIND, VaD and mixed VCI/AD were 0.85, 0.67 and 0.93, respectively. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that the new VCI diagnostic algorithm might be a suitable clinical approach for assessing stroke patients.

[Stent-assisted angioplasty and long-term results in atherosclerotic vertebral artery ostial stenosis].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the safety, feasibility and long-term results of stent-assisted angioplasty in atherosclerotic ostial stenosis of vertebral artery (VA). METHODS: Forty one patients (48 lesions) with symptomatic cerebral ischemic events or stroke attributed to VA atherosclerotic ostial stenosis > or = 50% (NASCET method) found in digital subtraction angiography (DSA) were approached for consent to participate in the study. During the procedure, three cases used protection devices and three used drug-eluting stents. RESULTS: Thirty seven of the patients were male and 4 female. Mean age was 63.4 years (range 36 - 80). Technical success was achieved in 97.9 % of the lesions. One suffered from a stroke that occurred within 30-days postprocedural. 37 patients were followed up for 22.4 months. The clinical follow-up outcomes showed that there were no lesion-related strokes and deaths, three appeared to have return of neurological symptoms (TIA). Among the 21 patients (26 lesions) who had angiography follow-up, re-stenosis (> or = 50%) was revealed in 9 patients (9 lesions) (34.6%). However, seven of these 9 patients remained asymptomatic. CONCLUSIONS: Stent-assisted angioplasty for atherosclerotic ostial stenosis of VA is safe and feasible. It can prevent the lesion-related stroke, death and TIA recurrence. However, further studies are needed to clarify how to reduce the relatively high re-stenosis rate.

Symptomatic intracranial stenosis: cerebrovascular complications from elective stent placement.

PURPOSE: To retrospectively evaluate the cerebrovascular complications from elective stent placement for symptomatic intracranial stenosis and to explore preliminarily which factors are associated with complications. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained, with waiver of informed consent. Records were reviewed of 181 consecutive elective stent placement procedures in 169 patients (mean age, 51.8 years; 142 male and 27 female patients) with symptomatic intracranial stenosis of more than 50% diameter reduction. Complications were evaluated. Fisher exact or chi(2) tests were used to assess statistical differences between rates for discrete variables. Stratification analysis was used to assess the significant relationship (P < .05) between a potential risk factor and a complication. RESULTS: Complications occurred in 20 patients (11.8%) of 169 patients: Ten patients (5.9%) had stroke (four patients had symptomatic intracranial hemorrhages [ICHs], and two of these patients died; six patients had ischemic strokes). Six patients had target-lesion thrombosis for which intrathrombus thrombolysis resulted in early complete patency without sequelae, two had asymptomatic ICHs, one had transient ischemic attack, and one had asymptomatic dissection. Perioperative noncompliance with antiplatelet therapy was found to be significantly associated with target-lesion thrombosis (two of eight patients [noncompliance] vs four of 161 patients [compliance], P = .027). Stratification analysis revealed a significant correlation between the use of double stents for a lesion and ICH (P = .005). CONCLUSION: Cerebrovascular complications from elective stent placement for intracranial stenosis are diverse. The use of double stents for a lesion is an independent risk factor for ICH. Perioperative noncompliance with antiplatelet therapy is associated with a higher frequency of target-lesion thrombosis.

[The effect of percutaneous transluminal stenting for vertebrobasilar ischemia on sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome].

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the relationship between vertebrobasilar ischemia (VBI) and sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) and the effect of percutaneous transluminal stenting for VBI on the clinical parameters of SAHS. METHODS: Twenty patients with VBI were included for clinical history, physical examination with sleep quentionnaires and scored by the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS). Polysomnographic (PSG) studies were performed before and after vascular stenting for VBI. The relationship among clinical factors, the incidence and characteristics of SAHS were analyzed. The changes of apnea hypopnea index (AHI), longest apnea duration (LAD), the total time of apnea and hypopnea (AH%), the lowest arterial saturation (LSaO(2)) and oxygen desaturation index (ODI(4)) before and after vascular stenting were compared. RESULTS: PSG studies were performed in 20 cases of VBI. SAHS was confirmed in 17 of the 20 patients, including mild (10/20), moderate (3/20) and severe (4/20), all were of obstructive. Before stenting therapy, AHI was 11.3/h (6.3 - 23.6)/h, but was 5.0/h (1.6 - 12.7)/h after therapy. LAD was (31.5 +/- 18.6) s vs (19.5 +/- 12.4) s, LSaO2 was (83.6 +/- 7.1)% vs (86.1 +/- 3.3)%, the AH% was [2.3 (0.6% - 9.8)%] vs [6.9% (2.6 - 14.3)%], ODI(4) was 10.1/h (5.3 - 29.0)/h vs 5.8/h (2.7 - 17.0)/h, respectively before and after stenting. AHI, LAD and ODI(4) were significantly decreased and LSaO(2) was increased after stenting for VBI. CONCLUSION: This series of patients with cerebravascular ischemia caused by vertebrobasilar artery stenosis had a high prevalence of obstructive sleep apnea. Vertebrobasilar vascular stenting was shown to be a reliable method of decreasing the degree of sleep-disordered breathing and hypoxia for SAHS patients with vertebrobasilar artery stenosis.