Title
Quantification of clot spatial heterogeneity and its impact on thrombectomy
UMMS Affiliation
Department of Radiology, New England Center for Stroke Research
Publication Date
2021-12-15
Document Type
Article
Disciplines
Cardiovascular Diseases | Nervous System Diseases | Neurology | Neurosurgery | Radiology
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Compositional and structural features of retrieved clots by thrombectomy can provide insight into improving the endovascular treatment of ischemic stroke. Currently, histological analysis is limited to quantification of compositions and qualitative description of the clot structure. We hypothesized that heterogeneous clots would be prone to poorer recanalization rates and performed a quantitative analysis to test this hypothesis.
METHODS: We collected and did histology on clots retrieved by mechanical thrombectomy from 157 stroke cases (107 achieved first-pass effect (FPE) and 50 did not). Using an in-house algorithm, the scanned images were divided into grids (with sizes of 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 mm) and the extent of non-uniformity of RBC distribution was computed using the proposed spatial heterogeneity index (SHI). Finally, we validated the clinical significance of clot heterogeneity using the Mann-Whitney test and an artificial neural network (ANN) model.
RESULTS: For cases with FPE, SHI values were smaller (0.033 vs 0.039 for grid size of 0.4 mm, P=0.028) compared with those without. In comparison, the clot composition was not statistically different between those two groups. From the ANN model, clot heterogeneity was the most important factor, followed by fibrin content, thrombectomy techniques, red blood cell content, clot area, platelet content, etiology, and admission of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV-tPA). No statistical difference of clot heterogeneity was found for different etiologies, thrombectomy techniques, and IV-tPA administration.
CONCLUSIONS: Clot heterogeneity can affect the clot response to thrombectomy devices and is associated with lower FPE. SHI can be a useful metric to quantify clot heterogeneity.
Keywords
intervention, stroke, technology, thrombectomy
DOI of Published Version
10.1136/neurintsurg-2021-018183
Source
Liu Y, Brinjikji W, Abbasi M, Dai D, Arturo Larco JL, Madhani SI, Shahid AH, Mereuta OM, Nogueira RG, Kvamme P, Layton KF, Delgado Almandoz JE, Hanel RA, Mendes Pereira V, Almekhlafi MA, Yoo AJ, Jahromi BS, Gounis MJ, Patel B, Fitzgerald S, Doyle K, Haussen DC, Al-Bayati AR, Mohammaden M, Pisani L, Rodrigues GM, Thacker IC, Kayan Y, Copelan A, Aghaebrahim A, Sauvageau E, Demchuk AM, Bhuva P, Soomro J, Nazari P, Cantrell DR, Puri AS, Entwistle J, Kadirvel R, Cloft HJ, Kallmes DF, Savastano L. Quantification of clot spatial heterogeneity and its impact on thrombectomy. J Neurointerv Surg. 2021 Dec 15:neurintsurg-2021-018183. doi: 10.1136/neurintsurg-2021-018183. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34911736. Link to article on publisher's site
Journal/Book/Conference Title
Journal of neurointerventional surgery
Related Resources
PubMed ID
34911736
Repository Citation
Liu Y, Gounis MJ, Puri AS. (2021). Quantification of clot spatial heterogeneity and its impact on thrombectomy. Radiology Publications. https://doi.org/10.1136/neurintsurg-2021-018183. Retrieved from https://escholarship.umassmed.edu/radiology_pubs/670
Comments
Full author list omitted for brevity. For the full list of authors, see article.