Journal of stroke and cerebrovascular diseases : the official journal of National Stroke Association
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J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis · Nov 2013
Multicenter StudyInterobserver reproducibility of signal intensity ratio on magnetic resonance angiography for hemodynamic impact of intracranial atherosclerosis.
Changes of signal intensities (SIs) across intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS) on magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) may reflect hemodynamic impact of the lesion. We evaluated the interobserver reproducibility of an index termed signal intensity ratio (SIR), developed in a previous study to represent the changes of SIs across ICAS on MRA. ⋯ SIR was demonstrated to be highly reproducible between observers in the present study. Future studies are warranted to further explore the role of this index in comprehensive evaluation and risk stratification of symptomatic ICAS.
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J Stroke Cerebrovasc Dis · Nov 2013
Multicenter StudyThe impact of intracranial carotid artery calcification on the development of thrombolysis-induced intracerebral hemorrhage.
We aimed to assess whether intracranial carotid artery calcification (ICAC) evident on head computed tomography is a risk factor for symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH) following tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) treatment for acute stroke. ⋯ A significantly higher percentage of patients with moderate to severe ICAC developed ICH following tPA administration for stroke. ICAC severity is an independent risk factor for ICH events. ICAC severity can help predict short-term and long-term functional dependency in tPA-treated patients, although this can be confounded by other cardiovascular risk factors and stroke severity.