A useful diagnostic method to reduce the in-hospital time delay for mechanical thrombectomy: Volume perfusion computed tomography with added vessel reconstruction

OBJECTIVE Volume perfusion CT (VPCT) with added CT angiography (CTA)–like reconstruction from VPCT source data (VPCTA) can reveal multiple intracranial parameters. The authors examined the usefulness of VPCTA in terms of reducing the in-hospital time delay for mechanical thrombectomy. METHODS A total of 180 patients who underwent mechanical thrombectomy at the authors’ institution between January 2014 and March 2017 were divided into 2 groups: a CTA-based thrombectomy decision group (group 1: CTA) and a VPCTA-based decision group (group 2: VPCTA). Multiple time interval categories (from symptom onset to groin puncture, from hospital arrival to groin puncture, procedure time, from symptom onset to reperfusion, and from hospital arrival to reperfusion) were reviewed. All patients underwent clinical assessment with the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score and the modified Rankin Scale, and radiological results were evaluated by the Thrombolysis in Cerebral Infarction score. RESULTS In all of the time interval categories except for procedure time, the VPCTA group showed a significantly shorter in-hospital time delay during the prethrombectomy period than did the CTA group. The 3-month modified Rankin Scale score was significantly lower in the VPCTA group (2.8) compared with the CTA group (3.5) (p = 0.003). However, there were no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups in the other clinical and radiological outcomes. CONCLUSIONS Compared with CTA, VPCTA significantly reduced the in-hospital time delay during the prethrombectomy period.