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Updated: Feb 16, 2026
Optimized Management of Endovascular Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke
Published on: January 18, 2018
The Benefit of a Triage System to Expedite Acute Stroke Head Computed Tomography Interpretations
Thomas F Osborne1, Andrew J Grabiel2, Reese H Clark3
1vRad (Virtual Radiologic), Eden Prairie, Minnesota; MEDNAX Center for Research, Education, Quality and Safety, Sunrise, Florida.
Background And Purpose:
We developed and tested a triage system to accelerate the interpretation of stroke head computed tomographies (CTs), with the goal of optimizing the time available for acute stroke therapy.
Materials And Methods:
In our practice, acute stroke protocol head CTs have been given the highest reading priority. We implemented a technologically enabled prioritization infrastructure to consistently present these critical cases to our radiologists so they are evaluated before other examinations. In our 1-year retrospective multicenter study of 350,495 head CT examinations, we compared the reading time of stroke protocol head CTs to our next highest priority head CT.
Results:
Our average acute stroke head CT reading turnaround time was 6.5 minutes. This represented a 17.3-minute improvement over the next highest priority head CT in our practice (confidence interval: 17.2-17.4 minutes, P < .001).
Conclusions:
A technologically enabled acute stroke protocol CT triage system consistently improves the reading times of critically time-dependent head CT examinations. As a result, this system has the potential to improve treatment times, treatment eligibility, and clinical outcomes.
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