CT cerebral blood flow maps optimally correlate with admission diffusion-weighted imaging in acute stroke but thresholds vary by postprocessing platform.

Background And Purpose: Admission infarct core lesion size is an important determinant of management and outcome in acute (<9 hours) stroke. Our purposes were to: (1) determine the optimal CT perfusion parameter to define infarct core using various postprocessing platforms; and (2) establish the degree of variability in threshold values between these different platforms.

Methods: We evaluated 48 consecutive cases with vessel occlusion and admission CT perfusion and diffusion-weighted imaging within 3 hours of each other.