More accurate identification of reversible ischemic injury in human stroke by cerebrospinal fluid suppressed diffusion-weighted imaging.
OBJECTIVE
The apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) derived from diffusion-weighted (DWI) MRI has been used to differentiate reversible from irreversible ischemic injury. However, the ADC can be falsely elevated by partial volume averaging of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) with parenchyma, limiting the accuracy of this approach. This study tested the hypothesis that the accuracy of differentiating reversible from irreversible ischemic injury could be improved by CSF suppression at image acquisition.


METHODS
Sixteen patients presenting within 6 hours from symptoms, and having partial reversal of the acute lesion on DWI were studied using conventional CSF-suppressed DWI. Lesions were segmented from coregistered acute DWI and follow-up fluid-attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) series. The segmented volumes were applied to conventional (ADC(C)) and CSF-suppressed ADC (ADC(FLIPD)) maps to classify each voxel as progressed to infarct or reversed. Individual voxel ADC values were pooled across all patients. Sensitivity to predict reversal, specificity, and accuracy were calculated for both methods.


RESULTS
A total of 25 313 voxels were classified as progressed and 31 952 voxels reversed. Across all lesion voxels, ADC(FLIPD) values more accurately depicted tissue fate compared with ADC(C) values (P<0.0001). The largest difference in the two methods was in voxels with <75% parenchyma, where the accuracy of ADC(C) was only 50% compared with 62% for ADC(FLIPD.)


CONCLUSIONS
CSF-suppressed ADC measurements gave a more accurate identification of reversible ischemic injury in this sample. We predict that multimodal MRI models of tissue viability in ischemic stroke will be more accurate if CSF-suppressed ADC measurements are used.
Bykowski
Julie L
JL
Section on Stroke Diagnostics and Therapeutics, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Md, USA.
Latour
Lawrence L
LL
Warach
Steven
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002544:Cerebral Infarction / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid / Q000175:diagnosis; D002555:Cerebrospinal Fluid; D038524:Diffusion Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007089:Image Enhancement; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D020521:Stroke / Q000134:cerebrospinal fluid* / Q000175:diagnosis*