MRI can delineate the sheets of musculature that make up the lateral abdominal wall. Side strain injury is caused by tearing of the internal oblique muscle from the undersurface of one of the lower four ribs or costal cartilages. MRI can document the site of a muscle tear, characterize the severity of injury, and monitor healing.
Background Following reperfusion treatment in ischemic stroke, CT imaging at 24-hours is widely used to assess radiological outcomes. Even without visible hyperattenuation, occult angiographic contrast may persist in the brain and confound Hounsfield Unit-based imaging metrics such as Net Water Uptake (NWU). Aims We aimed to assess the presence and factors associated with retained contrast post-thrombectomy on 24-hour imaging using Dual Energy CT (DECT), and its impact on the accuracy of NWU as a measure of cerebral edema. Methods Consecutive patients with anterior circulation large vessel occlusion who had post-thrombectomy DECT performed 24-hours post-treatment from two thrombectomy stroke centers were retrospectively studied. NWU was calculated by interside comparison of Hounsfield Units of the infarct lesion and its mirror homolog. Retained contrast was quantified by the difference in NWU values with and without adjustment for iodine. Patients with visible hyperdensities from hemorrhagic transformation or visible contrast retention, and bilateral infarcts were excluded. Cerebral edema was measured by relative hemispheric volume (rHV) and midline shift (MLS). Results Of 125 patients analyzed (median age 71 [IQR 61-80], baseline NIHSS 16 [IQR 9.75-21]), reperfusion (defined as extended-Thrombolysis-In-Cerebral-Infarction 2b-3) was achieved in 113 patients (90.4%). Iodine-subtracted NWU was significantly higher than unadjusted NWU (17.1% vs 10.8%, p<0.001). In multivariable median regression analysis, increased age (p=0.024), number of passes (p=0.006), final infarct volume (p=0.023) and study site (p=0.021) were independently associated with amount of retained contrast. Iodine-subtracted NWU correlated with rHV (rho=0.154, p=0.043) and MLS (rho=0.165, p=0.033) but unadjusted NWU did not (rHV rho=-0.035, p=0.35; MLS rho=0.035, p=0.347). Conclusions Angiographic iodine contrast is retained in brain parenchyma 24-hours post-thrombectomy, even without visually obvious hyperdensities on CT, and significantly affects NWU measurements. Adjustment for retained iodine using DECT is required for accurate NWU measurements post-thrombectomy. Future quantitative studies analyzing CT after thrombectomy should consider occult contrast retention.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.