Poor Outcomes Related to Anterior Extension of Large Hemispheric Infarction: Topographic Analysis of GAMES-RP Trial MRI Scans.

BACKGROUND

We aimed to assess the correlation of lesion location and clinical outcome in patients with large hemispheric infarction (LHI).

METHODS

We analyzed admission MRI data from the GAMES-RP trial, which enrolled patients with anterior circulation infarct volumes of 82-300 cm3 within 10 hours of onset. Infarct lesions were segmented and co-registered onto MNI-152 brain space. Voxel-wise general linear models were applied to assess location-outcome correlations after correction for infarct volume as a co-variate.

RESULTS

We included 83 patients with known 3-month modified Rankin scale (mRS). In voxel-wise analysis, there was significant correlation between admission infarct lesions involving the anterior cerebral artery (ACA) territory and its middle cerebral artery (MCA) border zone with both higher 3-month mRS and post-stroke day 3 and 7 National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) total score and arm/leg subscores. Higher NIHSS total scores from admission through poststroke day 2 correlated with left MCA infarcts. In multivariate analysis, ACA territory infarct volume (P = .001) and admission NIHSS (P = .005) were independent predictors of 3-month mRS. Moreover, in a subgroup of 36 patients with infarct lesions involving right MCA-ACA border zone, intravenous (IV) glibenclamide (BIIB093; glyburide) treatment was the only independent predictor of 3-month mRS in multivariate regression analysis (P = .016).

CONCLUSIONS

Anterior extension of LHI with involvement of ACA territory and ACA-MCA border zone is an independent predictor of poor functional outcome, likely due to impairment of arm/leg motor function. If confirmed in larger cohorts, infarct topology may potentially help triage LHI patients who may benefit from IV glibenclamide.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT01794182.