Therapeutic efficacy of brain imaging in acute ischemic stroke patients

SummaryThis article reviews main pathological findings in ischemic stroke patients as imaged with CT, CTA, MRI, and MRA and discusses its clinical effectiveness on different levels: technical, diagnostic accuracy, impact on diagnosis and treatment decisions affecting patient clinical outcome. It emphasizes the importance of detecting ischemic brain tissue damage (infarction) early during a time period when reperfusion therapy may be beneficial and provides evidence that brain tissue hypoattenuation as displayed by non-enhanced CT represents net water uptake (ionic edema) that is highly accurate in defining brain tissue that will not recover with reperfusion whereas MRI is highly sensitive in detecting patterns of ischemic brain tissue even in stages that allow functional recovery.