Abstract
BackgroundStroke can affect any portion of the central nervous system leading to a wide variety of symptoms depending on the part that is involved. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an emerging neuroimaging technique that allows measuring the integrity of white matter tracts.ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to find out if the diffusion tensor tractography technique can provide prognostic information regarding clinical outcome following ischemic stroke.Subjects and methodsForty patients with acute ischemic stroke were studied with DTI. Size of infraction, degree of reduction of fractional anisotropy (FA), and pattern of corticospinal tract (CST) affection were identified. We assessed our patients according to the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Medical Research Council (MRC) scale at onset of stroke and 3 months later.ResultsFA reduction was correlated with MRC and NIHSS on admission (P < 0.001, 0.004 respectively) and after 3 months (P < 0.001, 0.013 respectively). The pattern of CST affection was associated with NIHSS and MRC after 3 months (P = 0.035, 0.001 respectively).ConclusionDTI may be an indirect indicator of the ischemic stroke outcome.
Highlights
Stroke is the third common cause of disability and one of the leading causes of death worldwide
As regards the risk factors, hypertension was more common in patients (95%) followed by diabetes mellitus (DM) (70%), hyperuricemia (55%), dyslipidemia (52.5%), smoking (52.5%), ischemic heart disease (30%), and atrial fibrillation (AF) (15%)
The patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) within the first 7 days of the stroke onset and we found that 22 (55%) of our patients had small-sized infarction, 37.5% had mediumsized infarction, whereas only 7.5% presented with large infarction
Summary
Stroke is the third common cause of disability and one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Diffusion tensor tractography (DTT) visualizes the course of major white matter tracts which normally shows anisotropic diffusion in contrast to the grey matter DTI technique can be used to detect long patterns of orientation as well as the integrity of white matter tracts [9]. It provides information about the course, the compression, displacement, or interruption of white matter tracts in three dimensions it can be used to detect the prognosis following a stroke [10]. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) is an emerging neuroimaging technique that allows measuring the integrity of white matter tracts
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