Leukoaraiosis severity and post-reperfusion outcomes in acute ischaemic stroke: A meta-analysis

Severity of leukoaraiosis may mediate outcomes after reperfusion therapy in acute ischaemic stroke (AIS) patients. However, the level of the association remains poorly understood. We performed a meta-analysis to investigate the impact of leukoaraiosis severity on functional outcome, survival, haemorrhagic complications, and procedural success in AIS patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis and/or endovascular thrombectomy.

PubMed, EMBASE and the Cochrane library were searched for studies on leukoaraiosis in AIS receiving reperfusion therapy. A random-effects meta-analysis was conducted for post-reperfusion outcomes in AIS patients with absent-to-mild leukoaraiosis and moderate-to-severe leukoaraiosis. The strength of association between moderate-to-severe leukoaraiosis and poor outcomes was quantified using odds ratios (OR).

A total of 15 eligible studies involving 6460 patients (1451 with moderate-to-severe leukoaraiosis and 5009 with absent-to-mild leukoaraiosis) were included in the meta-analysis. Moderate-to-severe leukoaraiosis was significantly associated with poor 90-day functional outcome (OR 3.16; 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.69-3.72; p < .0001), 90-day mortality (OR 3.11; 95% CI 2.27-4.26; p < .0001) and increased risk of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage (OR 1.69; 95% CI 1.24-2.32; p = .001) after reperfusion therapy. Overall, no significant association of leukoaraiosis severity with haemorrhagic transformation (HT) and angiographic recanalization status were observed. However, subgroup analysis revealed a significant association of WML severity with HT in patients receiving EVT.

Leukoaraiosis is a useful prognostic biomarker in AIS. Patients with moderate-to-severe leukoaraiosis on baseline imaging are likely to have worse clinical and safety outcomes after reperfusion therapy.