Ruth L. O'Gorman1, Laszlo K. Sztriha2, Gareth J. Barker3, Steven CR Williams3, David C. Alsop4, 5, Ajit Shankaranarayanan6, Lalit Kalra2
1University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland; 2Clinical Neurosciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom; 3Centre for Neuroimaging Sciences, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, United Kingdom; 4Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, United States; 5Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States; 6Global Applied Science Laboratory, GE Healthcare, Menlo Park, CA, United States
Brain perfusion may represent a marker for vascular remodelling, with the potential to predict recovery. This study examines perfusion changes in recovering stroke patients, using arterial spin labelling (ASL) perfusion imaging. Perfusion images were acquired from stroke patients at 3 and 15 weeks after stroke onset. Between the visits, perfusion in the patients increased in the contralesional sensorimotor area, ipsilesional cerebellum, anterior cingulate and cuneus. Higher perfusion in the (structurally intact) ipsilesional thalamus, insula, medial temporal lobe, paracentral lobule and precuneus was associated with improved motor outcome, demonstrating that perfusion can provide a novel, easily obtainable biomarker for stroke recovery.