Change apparent diffusion coefficient immediately after recanalization through intra-arterial revascularization therapy in acute ischemic stroke

Intra-arterial revascularization therapy (IART) for acute ischemic stroke has become increasingly popular recently. However, early change in apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values after full recanalization in human stroke has not received much attention. The aim of this study was to evaluate ADC changes immediately after interventional full-recanalization in patients with acute ischemic stroke. ADC values of 25 lesions from 18 acute ischemic stroke patients were recorded with both pre- and post-recanalization ADC maps. Measurement was done by placing region of interests over the representative images of the lesion. For analysis, lesions were divided into territorial infarction (TI) and watershed infarction (WI). Mean ADC values of the overall 25 lesions before IART were 415.12 × 10-6 mm²/sec, and increased to 619.08 × 10-6 mm²/sec after the IART. Average relative ADC (rADC) value for 22 TI increased from 0.59 to 0.92 (p < 0.000), whereas, average rADC value for 3 WI did not change significantly. There was a conspicuous increase of ADC values immediately after full-recanalization in TI lesions. On the other hand, WI lesions did not show significant change in ADC values after recanalization