Early Progressive Changes in White Matter Integrity Are Associated with Stroke Recovery

AbstractInformation on microstructural white matter integrity has been shown to explain post-stroke recovery beyond clinical measures and focal brain damage. Especially, knowledge about early white matter changes might improve prediction of outcome. We investigated 42 acute reperfused ischemic stroke patients (mean age 66.5  years, 40% female, median admission NIHSS 9.5) with a symptomatic MRI-confirmed unilateral middle cerebral artery territory infarction 24–72 h post-stroke and after 3 months. All patients underwent neurological examination and brain MRI. Fifteen older healthy controls (mean age 57.3 years) we re also scanned twice. We assessed fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD). Patients showed significantly decreased white matter integrity in the hemisphere affected by the acute infarction 24–72 h post-stroke, which further decreased over 3 mon ths compared with controls. Less decrease in FA of remote white matter tracts was associated with better stroke recovery even after correcting for infarct location and extent. A regression model including baseline information showed that the modified Rankin Scale and mean FA of the genu of the corpu s callosum explained 53.5% of the variance of stroke recovery, without contribution of infarct volume. Furthermore, early dynamic FA changes of the corpus callosum within the first 3 months post-stroke independently predicted stroke recovery. Information from advanced M...
Source: Translational Stroke Research - Category: Neurology Source Type: research