Association between fluid-attenuated inversion recovery vascular hyperintensity and outcome varies with different lesion patterns in patients with intravenous thrombolysis.

background and purposeTo evaluate relationship between fluid-attenuated inversion recovery vascular hyperintensity (FVH) after intravenous thrombolysis and outcomes in different lesion patterns on diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI).

methodsPatients with severe internal carotid or intracranial artery stenosis who received intravenous thrombolysis from March 2012 to April 2019 were analysed. They were divided into four groups by DWI lesion patterns: border-zone infarct (BZ group), multiple lesions infarct (ML group), large territory infarct (LT group), and single cortical or subcortical lesion infarct (SL group). Logistic regression was performed to identify risk factors for outcome (unfavourable outcome, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≥2; poor outcome, mRS ≥3).

resultsFinally, 203 participants (63.3±10.2 years old; BZ group, n=72; ML group, n=64; LT group, n=37; SL group, n=30) from 1190 patient cohorts were analysed. After adjusting for confounding factors, FVH (+) was associated with unfavourable outcome in total group (OR 3.02; 95% CI 1.49 to 6.13; p=0.002), BZ group (OR 4.22; 95% CI 1.25 to 14.25; p=0.021) and ML group (OR 5.44; 95% CI 1.41 to 20.92; p=0.014) patients. FVH (+) was associated with poor outcome in total group (OR 2.25; 95% CI 1.01 to 4.97; p=0.046), BZ group (OR 5.52; 95% CI 0.98 to 31.07; p=0.053) and ML group (OR 4.09; 95% CI 1.04 to 16.16; p=0.045) patients, which was marginal significance. FVH (+) was not associated with unfavourable or poor outcome in LT and SL groups.

conclusionThis study suggests that association between FVH and outcome varies with different lesion patterns on DWI. The presence of FVH after intravenous thrombolysis may help to identify patients who require close observations in the hospitalisation in patients with border-zone and multiple lesion infarcts.