This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Reply to article  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Citation map  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Similar articles in this journal  Topic Collections  • Radiologic Imaging  • Cerebrovascular Disease  • Stroke  • Computed Tomography  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging  • Cardiovascular System  • Thrombolysis  • Alert me on articles by topic

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

In the recent article by Packard et al,¹ the authors suggest that an alternative to computed tomography (CT) such as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging should be considered in patients with acute ischemic stroke to lower the risk of an undetected intracerebral hemorrhage, especially if considering thombolytic therapy or anticoagulation. This may be misleading.

Routine spin echo T1- and T2-weighted MR imaging sequences have proved to lack sensitivity and specificity in the setting of hyperacute ischemic stroke.² On the other hand, spin echo diffusion-weighted MR imaging (DWI) has a better sensitivity than CT for the detection of ischemic stroke.^3-5 Recent studies comparing CT with MR imaging in the setting of acute ischemic stroke have demonstrated that the addition of DWI to conventional MR imaging improves the accuracy of identifying acute ischemic brain lesions in patients who have experienced a stroke. However, these studies enrolled patients later than 3 hours after the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Fred Rincon, MD
New York, NY

RELATED ARTICLE

Anticoagulation and Thrombolysis for Acute Ischemic Stroke and the Role of Diagnostic Magnetic Resonance Imaging—Reply
Carlos S. Kase and Glenn D. Barest
Arch Neurol. 2004;61(5):802.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT