Acute cerebral stroke imaging and brain perfusion with the use of high-concentration contrast media

Acute cerebral stroke remains a major cause of death among adults and the emergence of new therapies has created a need for early and rapid imaging at a time when conventional CT is either normal or demonstrates subtle abnormalities that are easy to misinterpret. Perfusion CT uses the temporal changes in cerebral and blood attenuation during a rapid series of images acquired without table movement following an intravenous bolus of contrast medium to generate images of mean transit time (MTT) cerebral blood volume (CBV) and perfusion. Reduced perfusion with preserved CBV is indicative of reversible ischaemia, whereas a matched reduction in perfusion and CBV implies infarction. The CT perfusion imaging can positively identify patients with non-haemorrhagic stroke in the presence of a normal conventional CT, provide an indication as to prognosis and potentially select those patients for whom thrombolysis is appropriate. Perfusion CT offers a powerful adjunct to MDCT based imaging of cerebrovascular disease, but further clinical validation is required.