Background and Purpose— In acute ischemic stroke patients, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)–Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS) is correlated with infarct volume and is an independent factor of functional… Click to show full abstract
Background and Purpose— In acute ischemic stroke patients, diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI)–Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS) is correlated with infarct volume and is an independent factor of functional outcome. Patients with pretreatment DWI-ASPECTS ⩽6 were excluded or under-represented in the recent randomized mechanical thrombectomy trials. Our aim was to assess the impact of reperfusion in pretreatment DWI-ASPECTS ⩽6 patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy. Methods— We analyzed data collected between January 2012 and August 2015 in a bicentric prospective clinical registry of consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients treated with mechanical thrombectomy. Every patient with a documented internal carotid artery or middle cerebral artery occlusion with pretreatment DWI-ASPECTS ⩽6 was eligible for this study. The primary end point was a favorable outcome defined by a modified Rankin Scale score ⩽2 at 90 days. Results— Two hundred and eighteen patients with a DWI-ASPECTS ⩽6 were included. Among them, 145 (66%) patients had successful reperfusion at the end of mechanical thrombectomy. Reperfused patients had an increased rate of favorable outcome (38.7% versus 17.4%; P=0.002) and a decreased rate of mortality at 3 months (22.5% versus 39.1%; P=0.013) compared with nonreperfused patients. The symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage rate was not different between the 2 groups (13.0% versus 14.1%; P=0.83). However, in patients with DWI-ASPECTS <5, favorable outcome was low (13.0% versus 9.5%; P=0.68) with a high mortality rate (45.7% versus 57.1%; P=0.38) with or without successful reperfusion. Conclusions— Successful reperfusion is associated with reduced mortality and disability in patients with a pretreatment DWI-ASPECTS ⩽6. Further data from randomized studies are needed, particularly in patients with DWI-ASPECTS <5.
               
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