Article Text

other Versions

Download PDFPDF
Original research
Pre-intervention triage incorporating perfusion imaging improves outcomes in patients undergoing endovascular stroke therapy: a comparison with the device trials
  1. Ansaar T Rai,
  2. Karthikram Raghuram,
  3. Jennifer Domico,
  4. Gerald Hobbs,
  5. Jeffrey Carpenter
  1. Interventional Neuroradiology, West Virginia University Hospital, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA
  1. Correspondence to Ansaar T Rai, Department of Radiology/Neuroradiology, West Virginia University Hospital, 2002 Ices Ferry Drive, Morgantown, WV 26508, USA; ansaar.rai{at}gmail.com

Abstract

Objectives Endovascular therapy of acute ischemic stroke is evolving towards thrombectomy devices for vessel recanalization. High rates of revascularization have been reported in stroke device trials. However, the discrepancy between recanalization and outcomes raises the question whether patients with irreversible ischemic injury are being exposed to these interventions. This study evaluated a triage methodology that incorporates perfusion imaging against previous device trials that treated all patients within a certain time frame.

Methods 99 consecutive patients were identified with anterior circulation strokes who had undergone endovascular therapy. All patients had a baseline NIHSS score ≥8 and had undergone pre-intervention CT perfusion. Rates of recanalization and functional outcomes were compared with the MERCI, Multi-MERCI and Penumbra trials.

Results This study's recanalization rate of 55.6% is not significantly different from the 46% for MERCI (p=0.15) and 68% for Multi-MERCI (p=0.08) but was significantly lower than the 82% for the Penumbra trial (p<0.0001). Successfully recanalized patients had a significantly higher good outcome of 67% in this cohort versus 46% in MERCI, 49% in Multi-MERCI and 29% in Penumbra. The rate of futile recanalization was 33% compared with 54% for MERCI, 51% for Multi-MERCI and 71% for Penumbra. A small cerebral blood volume (CBV) abnormality (p<0.0001) and large mean transit time–CBV mismatch (p<0.0001) were strong predictors of a good outcome.

Conclusion Despite similar or lower recanalization rates, there was a significantly higher rate of good outcomes in the recanalized population and thus a significantly lower rate of futile recanalization in this study versus the device trials, suggesting a role for pre-intervention perfusion imaging for patient selection.

  • blood flow
  • brain
  • catheter
  • CT angiography
  • CT perfusion
  • drug
  • endovascular
  • MRI
  • outcomes
  • perfusion
  • recanalization
  • stroke
  • thrombectomy
  • triage

Statistics from Altmetric.com

Request Permissions

If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests None.

  • Ethics approval Ethics approval was provided by the local institutional review board.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.