Diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (DW-MRI) is a highly sensitive tool for detection of early changes in water diffusion that characterize many brain pathologies, including acute ischemic stroke. An accurate and early diagnosis of ischemic strokes is critical to ensure patient receives prompt treatment, improves chances of survival and recovery. žFindings from a physical examination and patient history cannot always help determine an accurate diagnosis and it could be very frustrating for Clinician to start thrombolytic therapy without evidence on the scans. To determine acute stroke...

Ischemic Stroke cause edema, or swelling of the brain, which develops within minutes of the insult. žEdema is associated with reductions in the apparent diffusion coefficient of water and žThese changes occur well before they can be detected by conventional T2-weighted MRI and CT scan These changes represent variations in therandom motion of water molecules in tissues. They are expressed, in diffusion-weighted images, as changes in MRI signal intensity or as variations in the apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) of water. Acute brain lesions like ischemic...

At Pilgrim Hospital ( District General Hospital) in Boston in Lincolnshire UK. 188 patients were admitted with symptoms and signs of acute stroke from Accident and Emergency department during 3 months period to Stroke Word (14)% 25 patients had negative CT imaging scans and the diagnosis was confirmed with Diffusion awaited MRI The area of acuteischemic infarction becomes hyperintense (bright) on early diffusion-weighted images because of the shiftof water from extracellular to intracellular compartments in the formation of cytotoxic edema that resultsfrom failure of sodium...

Diffusion MRI is a reliable fast and highly senstive tool to detect acute strokes also it 1.provides unique information on the viability of brain tissue 2. resistant to patient motion 3.differentiate between acute and chronic infarction 4.differentiate between new and old lesions 5.fibrous tissues such as white matter of brains and fibers of muscles can be imaged for diagnosis Using this technology in General district Hospital will greatly improve service quality and safety and provide high standerd of clinical care.

1) Karl-Olof Lo¨vblad, Hans-Joachim Laubach, Alison E. Baird, Franc¸ois Curtin, Gottfried Schlaug,Robert R. Edelman, and Steven Warach, Clinical Experience with Diffusion-Weighted MRin Patients with Acute Stroke,AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 19:1061–1066, June 1998 2)Mark E. Mullins, MD, PhD,Pamela W. Schaefer, MD,A. Gregory Sorensen, MD,Elkan F. Halpern, PhD,Hakan Ay, MD,Julian He, MD,Walter J. Koroshetz, MDand R. Gilberto Gonzalez, MD, PhD ,CT and Conventional and Diffusion-weighted MR Imaging in Acute Stroke: Study in 691 Patients at Presentation to the Emergency Department,10.1148/radiol.2242010873 August 2002Radiology,224,353-360.