MRI's predictive value may depend on patient selection

January 23, 2008 Diagnostic Imaging. MRI's predictive value may depend on patient selection Severe stroke patients could see greatest benefit from additional imaging information Jordana Bieze Foster -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's one thing for acute stroke imaging to predict final infarct volume or a patient's risk of 90-day mortality. It's quite another for imaging to predict whether a patient will recover upper extremity dexterity or language skills, or to what extent the patient will be able to function independently. Researchers are only beginning to explore MRI's potential for making these types of functional outcome predictions, and although some studies have in fact found lesion volume on MRI to be predictive of function, these have been plagued by methodological flaws.1 In April 2006, an 82-patient study conducted by researchers from the University of Edinburgh concluded that imaging variables were not independent 3-month outcome predictors for a heterogeneous group of patients but suggested that MR diffusion-weighted imaging might have predictive value in patients with severe stroke.2

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