[Diagnostic value of clot burden score of susceptibility vessel sign in arterial thrombosis of acute ischemic stroke and its association with prognosis].

Objective: To analysis the value of susceptibility vessel sign (SVS) in susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) in detecting thrombogenesis in middle cerebral artery (MCA) and its association with clinical prognosis. Methods: From December 2014 to December 2015 in People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, we retrospectively examined clinical, imaging and experimental datafrom 104 consecutive patients with acute ischemic strokeand compared the consistency of detecting thrombus between SWI and magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) using Kappa analysis. Clot Burden Score (CBS) was used to analysis extent and scope of thrombus. The association between CBS and clinical prognosiswere analyzed by Spearman rank correlation. Results: Mean age was 60 years old of the 104 patients with acute cerebral infarction and female accounted for 32%. There were 39 patients (37.5%) with SVS positive in SWI and 32 patients (30.8%) with both SVS positive and MRA occlusion or severe stenosis. The consistency in predicting arterial thrombosis of occlusion or severe stenosis between MRA and SVS in SWI was statistically significant (Kappa=0.502, P <0.001). There were 6 cases with SVS positive and none stenosis in MRA, and all the clots in this 6 case were located in distal artery. CBS was significantly associated with 3-month outcome (Spearman ρ =-0.472; P <0.001). Conclusion: SWI is superior to MRA for the detection of intracranial distal thrombus in patients with acute ischemic stroke of the MCA territory. Higher clot burden(lower CBS) could be an important clinical tool to estimate poor outcome in patients with acutecerebral infarction.