Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
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National guidelines recommend patients with acute stroke undergo brain imaging within 25 minutes of emergency department arrival. Delayed brain imaging may reduce the effectiveness of thrombolysis or render patients ineligible. ⋯ Most patients with acute stroke symptoms do not have brain imaging performed within the recommended 25 minutes. Future quality improvement initiatives should focus on reducing door-to-imaging times with a specific emphasis on the predictive variables identified in this analysis.
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We investigated whether brain arteriovenous malformation silent intralesional microhemorrhage, that is, asymptomatic bleeding in the nidal compartment, might serve as a marker for increased risk of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (ICH). We evaluated 2 markers to assess the occurrence of silent intralesional microhemorrhage: neuroradiological assessment of evidence of old hemorrhage-imaging evidence of bleeding before the outcome events-and hemosiderin positivity in hematoxylin and eosin-stained paraffin block sections. ⋯ The prevalence of silent intralesional microhemorrhage is high and there is evidence for an association with both index and subsequent ICH. Further development of means to detect silent intralesional microhemorrhage during brain arteriovenous malformation evaluation may present an opportunity to improve risk stratification, especially for unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations.