Study materials were collected from the Suzhou Taicang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine from November 2020 to August 2022. There were 178 cases where a diagnosis of AIS was made. The ethics committee of the Suzhou Taicang Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine approved this study and waived patient consent due to the retrospective study design (Grant No. 2022-023). All study procedures were carried out in accordance with the relevant guidelines and regulations.
Among these 178 cases, 57 patients who met the following criteria at our institution were retrospectively included in this study: (1) all patients clinically diagnosed with AIS had undergone one-stop, plain CT scan, CTP, and CTA, (2) all scans were performed within the 24 h of the onset of AIS, (3) all data had undergone valid quantitative analysis by F-STROKE (16 (link)), an automated perfusion analysis software (version 1.0.18; Neuroblast, Ltd. Co.), (4) all diagnostic images were clear, with no obvious motion artifacts or metallic artifacts evident, (5) no other brain diseases, such as brain tumors, vascular malformations, or cerebral hemorrhages, and (6) no previous history of thrombolytic therapy or massive cerebral infarction. Exclusion criteria included (1) the time of onset was >24 h, (2) the quantitative value was too small (ischaemic focus range: <5 mL), as determined using the F-STROKE software, (3) a history of thrombolytic therapy or massive cerebral infarction, (4) brain tumor or cerebrovascular disease, or (5) CT image quality did not meet the evaluation requirements (e.g., based on the presence of titanium clip artifacts or heavy motion artifacts). A flow chart of the inclusion/exclusion process is displayed in Figure 1. The CTA showed corresponding stenosis or occlusion in 50 cases and was normal in 7 cases.
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