Computed tomography angiography-based deep learning method for treatment selection and infarct volume prediction in...

Computed tomography perfusion (CTP) is the mainstay to determine possible eligibility for endovascular thrombectomy (EVT), but there is still a need for alternative methods in patient triage.

To study the ability of a computed tomography angiography (CTA)-based convolutional neural network (CNN) method in predicting final infarct volume in patients with large vessel occlusion successfully treated with endovascular therapy.

The accuracy of the CTA source image-based CNN in final infarct volume prediction was evaluated against follow-up CT or MR imaging in 89 patients with anterior circulation ischemic stroke successfully treated with EVT as defined by Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction category 2b or 3 using Pearson correlation coefficients and intraclass correlation coefficients. Convolutional neural network performance was also compared to a commercially available CTP-based software (RAPID, iSchemaView).

A correlation with final infarct volumes was found for both CNN and CTP-RAPID in patients presenting 6-24 h from symptom onset or last known well, with r = 0.67 (p < 0.001) and r = 0.82 (p < 0.001), respectively. Correlations with final infarct volumes in the early time window (0-6 h) were r = 0.43 (p = 0.002) for the CNN and r = 0.58 (p < 0.001) for CTP-RAPID. Compared to CTP-RAPID predictions, CNN estimated eligibility for thrombectomy according to ischemic core size in the late time window with a sensitivity of 0.38 and specificity of 0.89.

A CTA-based CNN method had moderate correlation with final infarct volumes in the late time window in patients successfully treated with EVT.