Changes in regional brain volume three months after stroke

Abstract

Introduction: Little is known about changes in regional brain volume after stroke. We investigated cortical thickness changes over 3 months in a group of stroke patients compared with controls. Material and methods: Patients with acute hemispheric stroke were studied within 3 h of stroke onset and serially over 3 months. We compared the acute and 3 month scans with independently acquired control images. High resolution isotropic T1 images were analyzed using FreeSurfer V5.0, comparing regional average cortical thickness, hippocampal and thalamic volumes. Stroke patient results were analyzed separately for ipsilesional and contralesional regions, whereas control results were averaged across h..