BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Mismatch between clinical deficits and imaging lesions in acute stroke has been proposed as a method of identifying patients who have hypoperfused but still have viable brain, and may be especially apt to respond to reperfusion therapy. We explored this hypothesis using a combined database including 4 major clinical trials of intravenous (IV) thrombolytic therapy. METHODS: To determine what the radiological correlates of a "matched" functional deficit are, we calculated the relationship between the ASPECT score of the 24-hour (follow-up) CT scan and the 24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score on the subsample with ASPECT scores performed at this time (n=820). Based on this empirical relationship, we computed the absolute difference between the observed baseline ASPECT score and the "expected" score (ie, matched) based on baseline NIHSS for all patients (n=2131). We tested whether patients with better than expected baseline ASPECTS were more likely to benefit from IV recombinant tissue plasminogen activation (rtPA). RESULTS: At 24 hours, there was a strong, linear, negative correlation between NIHSS and ASPECTS (r2=0.33, P<0.0001); on average, an increase of 10 points on NIHSS corresponded to a decrease of approximately 3 points on ASPECTS. At baseline, the average degree of mismatch between the observed and "expected" ASPECTS was 2.1 points (interquartile range, 1.0 to 3.4). However, multiple analyses failed to reveal a consistent relationship between the degree of clinical-CT mismatch at baseline and a patient's likelihood of benefiting from IV rtPA. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical-CT mismatch using ASPECT scoring does not reliably identify patients more or less likely to benefit from IV rtPA.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Mismatch between clinical deficits and imaging lesions in acute stroke has been proposed as a method of identifying patients who have hypoperfused but still have viable brain, and may be especially apt to respond to reperfusion therapy. We explored this hypothesis using a combined database including 4 major clinical trials of intravenous (IV) thrombolytic therapy. METHODS: To determine what the radiological correlates of a "matched" functional deficit are, we calculated the relationship between the ASPECT score of the 24-hour (follow-up) CT scan and the 24-hour National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score on the subsample with ASPECT scores performed at this time (n=820). Based on this empirical relationship, we computed the absolute difference between the observed baseline ASPECT score and the "expected" score (ie, matched) based on baseline NIHSS for all patients (n=2131). We tested whether patients with better than expected baseline ASPECTS were more likely to benefit from IV recombinant tissue plasminogen activation (rtPA). RESULTS: At 24 hours, there was a strong, linear, negative correlation between NIHSS and ASPECTS (r2=0.33, P<0.0001); on average, an increase of 10 points on NIHSS corresponded to a decrease of approximately 3 points on ASPECTS. At baseline, the average degree of mismatch between the observed and "expected" ASPECTS was 2.1 points (interquartile range, 1.0 to 3.4). However, multiple analyses failed to reveal a consistent relationship between the degree of clinical-CT mismatch at baseline and a patient's likelihood of benefiting from IV rtPA. CONCLUSIONS: Clinical-CT mismatch using ASPECT scoring does not reliably identify patients more or less likely to benefit from IV rtPA.
Authors: David M Kent; Robin Ruthazer; Carole Decker; Philip G Jones; Jeffrey L Saver; Erich Bluhmki; John A Spertus Journal: Neurology Date: 2015-08-19 Impact factor: 9.910
Authors: E M Fanou; J Knight; R I Aviv; S-P Hojjat; S P Symons; L Zhang; M Wintermark Journal: AJNR Am J Neuroradiol Date: 2015-10-15 Impact factor: 3.825
Authors: Edwin M Nemoto; Oscar Mendez; Mary E Kerr; Andrew Firlik; Kevin Stevenson; Tudor Jovin; Howard Yonas Journal: Transl Stroke Res Date: 2012-05-30 Impact factor: 6.829
Authors: E S Rosenthal; L H Schwamm; L Roccatagliata; S B Coutts; A M Demchuk; P W Schaefer; R G Gonzalez; M D Hill; E F Halpern; M H Lev Journal: AJNR Am J Neuroradiol Date: 2008-07-03 Impact factor: 3.825