Comparisons of Apparent Diffusion Coefficient Values in Penumbra, Infarct, and Normal Brain Regions in Acute Ischemic Stroke: Confirmatory Data Using Bootstrap Confidence Intervals, Analysis of Variance, and Analysis of Means.

Background And Objective: There is no consensus about apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) values in acute stroke regions that could be used by clinicians in a day-to-day clinical practice; regional measures using confidence intervals (CIs) and a graphic representation of means are scarce in the literature. Our aim in this study was to compare ADC values in infarct, penumbra, and normal brain regions in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS).

Methods: This is a retrospective study of 100 magnetic resonance imaging data sets from AIS patients. ADC values were measured in the infarct, penumbra, and normal regions. Three hundred measurements underwent 1-way analysis of variance, analysis of means, and calculation of 95% and 84% CIs.

Results: There was a statistically significant difference at the P level less than .025 in ADC values for the 3 regions (F[2, 297] = 168.039, P ≤ .001), with no overlap of the CIs for the means among the regions: normal brain (mean [M] = .847, standard deviation [SD] = .103, 95% CI: .825-.866), infarct (M = .533, SD = .157, 95% CI: .501-.563), and penumbra (M = .764, SD = .110, 95% CI: .740-.787).

Conclusions: ADC values might be used as reference data in acute stroke-specific populations; CIs would provide radiologists and clinicians with additional quantitative tools to evaluate penumbra, infarct, and normal brain tissue and to tailor follow-up and treatment options for selected patients.