Theavailability of Stroke Centres and increased MRI use has rendered the diagnosis of the ischemic stroke quicker and more efficient. However with the patient's improved access to thrombolytic therapy, theissue of increase in the false negative resultson diffusion weighted MRI sequences in Stroke MRI protocols became apparent (fig. 2). At the same time, even if M1 occlusion is usually easily appreciated on TOF sequences, M2 occlusions may sometimes rise interpretation problems and M3 occlusion even more so. Our aim was thus to identify and demonstrate...

Patients We retrospectively reviewed MR images of 1627 patients admitted in our institution for suspicion of acute ischemic stroke between July 2011 and December 2012. We considered patients to be eligible for inclusion in our study if they met the following criteria: 1. Patients had clear symptom onset maximum 4,5 hours before being admitted to our stroke center. 2. The MRI exams were performed on our 3T GE MRI machine. 3. Patients underwent a complete MRI exam following our stroke protocolwhichconsistently includes DWI, FLAIR, TOF,...

Our data review of 1627 patients yielded a total of 73 that matched all the inclusion criteria. Of those, 44(60%) were women and 29(40%) were men. The average age at presentation was 64, with extreme ages of 25 and 98 respectively. Our data showed a peak incidence of ischemic stroke in the 8th decade. According to the site of occlusion of the MCA (M1, M2 or M3) the study population was divided in three groups: M1 occlusion was identified in 29(40%) patients, M2 occlusion in...

1. In an emergency setting, whenever DWI findings are absent or uncertain to support ichemic stroke as the definitive diagnosis, the presence or absence of signs on other sequences routinely included in MRI stroke protocols can provide valuable information leading to a correct diagnosis 2. In our experience FLAIR and SWI were the sequences that offered most frequently and consistently information to support or establish the definitive diagnosis of acute ishcemic stroke. 3. SWI and T2* are the only sequences that can demostrate accurately and...

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