HOW MODERN NEURO IMAGING AND NEURO INTERVENTION IS REVOLUTIONISING THE MANAGEMENT OF ACUTE ISCHEMIC STROKE

Abstract

Recent advances in modern Neuro diagnos-tic imaging techniques and Neuro intervention has revolutionized the management of patients with acute ischemic stroke.
In a conventional medical set up with no facility for Neuro intervention, Plain compute-rized tomography (CT scan) will suffice to diffe-rentiate between ischemic stroke or hemorrhagic stroke in a clinically suspected stroke patient and thus the clinicians will decide whether to anticoagulate the patient or not1. Another useful and better alternative in this setting is an MRI with DWI (Diffusion Weighted Imaging), ADC mapping and GRE (Gradient Recoil Echo) seq-uence which is a hemorrhage sensitive sequence2. MRI has the advantage that it detects the exact extent of stroke on DWI/ADC mapping within minutes of clinical onset of stroke while on the other hand CT scan may be normal or negative up to even 24 hours of clinical onset of stroke.

Although the advanced diagnostic neuro imaging and neuro intervention in acute stroke has many complex aspects, above is a brief and simplified imaging approach in stroke patients for clinicians in general. In conclusion, advances in neuro-diagnostic techniques and active neuro-intervention has led to a marked improvement in prognosis of acute stroke patients, provided early neuroimaging and neurointervention is done.