Neurosonography After Mechanical Thrombectomy for Acute Stroke Treatment

Mechanical thrombectomy has been shown to be effective for acute stroke treatment, but lesions of cerebral vessels can develop thereafter. Such lesions of recanalized vessels and altered cerebral hemodynamics after mechanical thrombectomy are poorly investigated. In particular for neurosonography, data are sparse. We aimed to describe hemodynamic changes and incidence of de-novo stenosis after mechanical thrombectomy with neurosonography.

Retrospective analysis of patients after successful mechanical thrombectomy for acute stroke therapy who received one neurosonography at baseline and during follow up. Peak systolic velocity (PSV) of all intracranial recanalized and reference vessels was extracted for analysis. Patients with an isolated increase or decrease of PSV (50% or 50 cm/second for anterior and 30% or 30 cm/second for posterior circulation) were identified and characterized.

Eighty-eight patients (mean age 64.4; 34.1% female) were included in this study. In 9 (10.2%) patients, the vessel occlusion was located in the posterior, and in 79 (89.9%) patients the vessel occlusion was located in the anterior circulation. With predominance to the recanalized vessel, mean PSV decreased at both, the recanalized and the reference vessel during follow up. In 3 (3.4%) patients, an isolated increase of PSV was observed in the recanalized vessel, and in 6 (6.8%) patients an isolated decrease of PSV was observed in the recanalized vessel.

Sonographic incidence of de-novo stenosis following mechanical thrombectomy seems to be low, in line with prior angiographic studies. However, as measured by neurosonography, cerebral hemodynamic in the recanalized vessel is dynamic after thrombectomy. This result is of interest for further prospective analysis.