Monitoring cerebral blood flow change through use of arterial spin labelling in acute ischaemic stroke patients after intra-arterial thrombectomy

Objectives To evaluate the ability of arterial spin labelling perfusion-weighted imaging (ASL-PWI) to identify reperfusion status and to predict the early neurological outcome of acute ischaemic stroke patients after intra-arterial (IA) thrombectomy. Methods A total of 51 acute ischaemic stroke patients who underwent IA thrombectomy were retrospectively reviewed. Asymmetrical index before and after IA thrombectomy (AICBF pre and AICBF post ) and volume ratio of the reperfused territory to the baseline perfusion abnormality (reperfusion volume ratio) were calculated on ASL-PWI. A paired t-test was used to compare AICBF pre and AICBF post . Pearson correlation and multiple linear regression were performed to evaluate correlations between the imaging parameters and NIHSS scores. Results Mean AICBF post was significantly higher than mean AICBF pre (0.923±0.352 vs. 0.312±0.191, p