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ABSTRACT: Purpose
Ischemic brain edema is subtle and hard to detect by computed tomography within the first hours of stroke onset. We hypothesize that non-enhanced CT (NECT) post-processing with frequency-selective non-linear blending ("best contrast"/BC) increases its accuracy in detecting edema and irreversible tissue damage (infarction).Methods
We retrospectively analyzed the NECT scans of 76 consecutive patients with ischemic stroke (exclusively middle cerebral artery territory-MCA) before and after post-processing with BC both at baseline before reperfusion therapy and at follow-up (5.73±12.74 days after stroke onset) using the Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS). We assessed the differences in ASPECTS between unprocessed and post-processed images and calculated sensitivity, specificity, and predictive values of baseline NECT using follow-up CT serving as reference standard for brain infarction.Results
NECT detected brain tissue hypoattenuation in 35 of 76 patients (46.1%). This number increased to 71 patients (93.4%) after post-processing with BC. Follow-up NECT confirmed brain infarctions in 65 patients (85.5%; p = 0.012). Post-processing increased the sensitivity of NECT for brain infarction from 35/65 (54%) to 65/65 (100%), decreased its specificity from 11/11 (100%) to 7/11 (64%), its positive predictive value (PPV) from 35/35 (100%) to 65/69 (94%) and increased its accuracy 46/76 (61%) to 72/76 (95%).Conclusions
This post-hoc analysis suggests that post-processing of NECT with BC may increase its sensitivity for ischemic brain damage significantly.
SUBMITTER: Bier G
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4726582 | biostudies-literature | 2016
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Bier Georg G Bongers Malte N MN Ditt Hendrik H Bender Benjamin B Ernemann Ulrike U Horger Marius M
PloS one 20160125 1
<h4>Purpose</h4>Ischemic brain edema is subtle and hard to detect by computed tomography within the first hours of stroke onset. We hypothesize that non-enhanced CT (NECT) post-processing with frequency-selective non-linear blending ("best contrast"/BC) increases its accuracy in detecting edema and irreversible tissue damage (infarction).<h4>Methods</h4>We retrospectively analyzed the NECT scans of 76 consecutive patients with ischemic stroke (exclusively middle cerebral artery territory-MCA) be ...[more]