Use of diffusion weighted MRI to predict the occurrence and severity of hemorrhagic transformation in a rabbit model of embolic stroke

Abstract

Severe hemorrhagic transformation (HT) is an important complication of thrombolytic therapy. A method to identify stroke victims destined to severe HT could improve the patient selection and thus the safety of such treatment. In this study, we investigated whether very early serial diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DWI) could predict the occurrence of HT in an embolic model of experimental stroke. We tested the hypothesis that the ischemic brains with very low initial apparent diffusion coefficients (ADC) are destined to severe early (≤5.5 h) HT. We retrospectively analyzed DWI scans of 45 New Zealand white rabbits subjected to thromboembolic stroke and treated with thrombolysis..