In Vivo Measurement of Oxygenation Changes after Stroke Using Susceptibility Weighted Imaging Filtered Phase Data

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Cerebral blood oxygenation level is critical for following the evolution of stroke patients. The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility of measuring changes in blood oxygen levels for patients with acute stroke using SWI and to compare these changes with the patient's recovery over time. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total 30 MRI scans was performed on 10 acute ischemic stroke patients. Every patient was followed at three time points: less than 24 hours; 2–3 weeks after stroke and 2 months after stroke. Both MRI scan and NIH stroke scale (NIHSS) were acquired for each patient at all three time points. Oxygen saturation changes were derived from phase values differences (Δφ) measured over 10 veins from each hemisphere for all 10 patients over 3 time points. The correlation of oxygen saturation and NIHSS was further evaluated. RESULTS: The stroke affected side of the brain showed moderate (r = −0.62) to strong (r = −0.70) correlation between the oxygenation change and NIHSS change. The oxygen saturation change from the normal side of the brain had essentially no association with recovery (r = −0.02 and−0.31). The results suggest that increases in oxygen saturation correspond to improved outcome and reductions in oxygen saturation correspond to worse outcome. CONCLUSION: High resolution SWI provided a novel method to measure changes in oxygenation change of the human brain in vivo. By using the phase values from the veins, both spatial and temporal information can be found that relates to patient outcome post stroke.