MAGNETIC RESONANCE ANGIOGRAPHY AND BRAIN ISCHEMIA IN PATIENTS WITH ACUTE STROKE

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of the study is to see presence of arterial diseases on Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA) and diffusion positive infarction in patients with acute ischemic stroke. STUDY DESIGN: Cross-sectional conducted at Radiology department of the Aga Khan University Hospital. METHODS: 124 patients with signs and symptoms of cerebral ischemia were referred for study. 16 patients could not complete the study because of poor cooperation and MRA was not done. 108 patients completed all sequences of the study according to departmental protocol. MRA findings were evaluated with presence of acute brain ischemia on magnetic resonance imaging. Chi square test was applied to see whether arterial disease on MRA correlated with brain parenchymal abnormality on MRI. p-value less than 0.05 were considered as significant. RESULTS: In majority of patients (95.34%) the arterial lesion on MRA correlated with acute infarction on MRI (p-value 0.001). 40 patients had arterial abnormality on left side while in 42 patients arterial stenosis was noted on right side while 4 patients had bilateral arterial disease. CONCLUSION: A high positive correlation between Magnetic Resonance Angiography and MR diffusion restriction (95.34%) supports an arterial vasculopathy as the basis of this MR signature in acute ischemic strokes. However any occlusive disease of an arterial branch which remained undetected by MRA could have been the result of any discordance seen in this study. Key words : Magnetic Resonance Diffusion Weighted Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Angiography, Acute Ischemic Stroke.