The Role of Cerebral CT Angiogram in Subacute Ischemic Cerebrovascular Events

Abstract

Background: Stroke is a spectrum of medical emergencies resulting from a direct insult to the cerebral blood flow. Cerebral computed tomography angiogram (CTA) plays an important role in the diagnostic algorithm of acute stroke. However, the role of CTA in the subacute phase is not well-established. This study aimed to assess the diagnostic role of CTA in subacute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack (TIA) in identifying underlying etiology. It also aimed to describe the commonly encountered CTA findings in the subacute phase of ischemic events.Methods: This is a retrospective study in which we evaluated the radiologic records of all patients who had a cerebral CTA for subacute stroke and TIA during the period from January 1, 2010 to May 30, 2018. Results:The study included 104 cases diagnosed with subacute ischemic stroke or TIA. Patients' ages ranged from 8 to 96 years with a mean age of 52.9 (18.1) years. Most of the patients were males (68.3%; 71). CTA findings were abnormal in 86 cases (82.7%). Stenosis was diagnosed in 34 (32.7%) cases, followed by acute arterial thrombosis (25; 24%) and chronic occlusion (17; 16.3%). The internal carotid artery was the most affected (57.6%), followed by the vertebrobasilar arteries. Conclusion:The current study revealed that CTA has a high diagnostic yield in the subacute phase of ischemic cerebrovascular events, with an important role in detecting clinically relevant findings in this group of patients.

Reduced radiation dose and volume of contrast medium in heart rate-based, one-stop computed tomography angiography of coronary, carotid and cerebrovascular arteries

“…CTA has become as a reliable tool for the diagnosis of atherosclerotic disease and the characterization of carotid artery plaques, showing high concordance with histological results (8,9). CTA has also been considered an ideal imaging examination for the detection of coronary artery stenosis (10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15) and the significance of CTA in the detection of ischemic cerebrovascular diseases has been highlighted (16,17).…”