Value of CT Perfusion for Collateral Status Assessment in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke

Good collateral status in acute ischemic stroke patients is an important indicator for good outcomes. Perfusion imaging potentially allows for the simultaneous assessment of local perfusion and collateral status. We combined multiple CTP parameters to evaluate a CTP-based collateral score. We included 85 patients with a baseline CTP and single-phase CTA images from the MR CLEAN Registry. We evaluated patients’ CTP parameters, including relative CBVs and tissue volumes with several time-to-maximum ranges, to be candidates for a CTP-based collateral score. The score candidate with the strongest association with CTA-based collateral score and a 90-day mRS was included for further analyses. We assessed the association of the CTP-based collateral score with the functional outcome (mRS 0–2) by analyzing three regression models: baseline prognostic factors (model 1), model 1 including the CTA-based collateral score (model 2), and model 1 including the CTP-based collateral score (model 3). The model performance was evaluated using C-statistic. Among the CTP-based collateral score candidates, relative CBVs with a time-to-maximum of 6–10 s showed a significant association with CTA-based collateral scores (p = 0.02) and mRS (p = 0.05) and was therefore selected for further analysis. Model 3 most accurately predicted favorable outcomes (C-statistic = 0.86, 95% CI: 0.77–0.94) although differences between regression models were not statistically significant. We introduced a CTP-based collateral score, which is significantly associated with functional outcome and may serve as an alternative collateral measure in settings where MR imaging is not feasible.