Magnetic resonance prediction of outcome after thrombolytic treatment

Treatment of clinical stroke with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) carries the risk of hemorrhagic complications. Hence, predictors of therapeutic outcome with respect to (a) reperfusion and (b) tissue recovery would be very useful to identify potentially salvageable brain tissue. Magnetic resonance (MR) parameters, especially the apparent diffusion coefficient of water (ADC), perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) and T2 relaxometry are thought to provide this information. We evaluated the prognostic implications of ADC, PWI and T2 relaxometry immediately before initiation of thrombolytic treatment in a model of clot embolism in rats. Animals (n = 14) were treated with intraarterial rt-PA (10 mg/kg) at 90 min after embolism. MR imaging was repeatedly performed at 4.7 T before and up to 5.5 h after embolism. ADC was calculated from diffusion-weighted images (b-values: 30, 765, 1500 s/mm2), arterial spin tagging was used for PWI, and quantitative T2 relaxometry was performed with a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence. A reperfusion index was calculated to assess the quality of thrombolytic recanalization. The decline of ADC at the end of the experiment to below 80% of control was defined as unfavorable outcome. The probability of tissue injury at the end of the experiments increased with the severity of ADC changes before the initiation of treatment (probability of unfavorable outcome: 21%, 44%, 65% for ADC values of 80–90%, 70–80% and <70% of control, respectively). Pretreatment PWI or T2 relaxometry also correlated with outcome but—alone or in combination with pretreatment ADC maps—did not improve injury prediction over that obtained by ADC alone. Outcome was influenced positively by successful reperfusion the quality of which, however, could not be predicted by pre-treatment MR characteristics. The data demonstrate that ADC mapping performed before the initiation of thrombolytic treatment provides reliable risk assessment of impeding brain injury but due to uncertainties of postischemic reperfusion does not allow precise outcome prediction in individual experiments.