Assessment of the patient with hyperacute stroke: imaging and therapy

Neuroimaging is an important part of the assessment of patients with hyperacute stroke. As new treatments that may reverse cerebral ischemia have been developed, the role of neuroimaging has changed from simply anatomic depiction of early infarction to identification, by means of physiologic (rather than simply anatomic) information, of regions that are at risk for infarction. The goal of such imaging techniques is to monitor successes and complications of recently developed treatments such as thrombolysis.