Automatic Measurement of Infarct Volume and Prediction by Pial Collaterals in Experimental Acute Ischemic Stroke

Tissue infarct due to major vessel occlusion depends on the compromised blood flow and the time since onset. Compromised blood flow may be sustained by recruitment of pial collateral vessels. In this study, the extent of pial collateral recruitment was used to predict infarct volume in an experimental middle cerebral artery occlusion animal model with and without norepinephrine and hydralazine. An automatic method of infarct volume measurement was developed to minimize user variability and time. The automatically calculated infarct volumes were highly correlated to manually measured volumes, and pial collaterals were predictive of infarct volume.