Abstract

Background and Purpose: Hemorrhage transformation (HT) is common in patients with acute cerebral infarction caused by atrial fibrillation. The prediction of HT is crucial after acute stroke, especially for the patients received vessel recanalization therapy. The Alberta Stroke program early CT score (ASPECTS) is used to estimate early ischemic changes within the MCA territory in the acute stroke setting. Several studies indicated that CT perfusion (CTP) and MR diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) ASPECTS scores was useful to quantify the degree of ischemic brain tissue. Hereby we did the study to explore the association of CT perfusion ASPECTS scores with HT in patients with acute ischemic stroke and atrial fibrillation. Methods: This was a single center retrospective study. All patients with middle cerebral artery infarction and atrial fibrillation from September 2008 to September 2013 were included. MR imaging including DWI and gradient echo sequence (GRE), and CTP were required to identify the HT and determine the scores of CTP- ASPECTS. Demographic and clinical characteristics of the HT positive and negative groups were explored. Results: Fifty-four patients were analyzed, among them twenty-four patients (44%) developed HT. According to logistic regression analysis, mean transit time (MTT), cerebral blood volume (CBV) and DWI-ASPECTS scores were associated with HT ( p = 0.035, 0.044, and 0.020 respectively). The following receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis revealed area under the curve of MTT, CBV, CBF and DWI were 0.588, 0.737, 0.687, and 0.841 respectively. CBV-ASPECTS score was found to have medium prediction value of HT among all CTP-ASPECTS parameters. ROC analysis also indicated that CBV-ASPECTS score < 7 was the optimal threshold. Conclusions: CTP-ASPECTS was useful to predict the HT of acute ischemic stroke caused by atrial fibrillation and CBV-ASPECTS score < 7 was the preferable parameter.

Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call