Brain attack. Clinical monitoring of early pathophysiologic events

Stroke is the most prevalent life-threatening neurologic disease. The opportunity to intervene in the acute setting with the use of thrombolytics or neuroprotective agents has led to an evolving interest in obtaining physiologic data points during the acute event. Several imaging techniques are available that can provide pertinent information during the acute phase of an ischemic episode. Some of these techniques, such as diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted MR imaging, show exciting promise for defining the ischemic penumbra zone, which is the target of acute intervention.