CEST in Stroke
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Optimising 3D pH-Weighted CEST MRI in Acute Ischaemic Stroke
IRAS ID
241150
Contact name
Thomas Booth
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
King's College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
CEST in Stroke is an observational magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) study in acute ischaemic stroke patients. Ischaemic stokes are the most common type of stroke and occur when a blood clot blocks the flow of blood and oxygen your brain needs. This can lead to cellular death (infarction) so the quicker a stroke is diagnosed and treated, the better a patient’s recovery is likely to be.
The purpose of this study is to determine the technical feasibility of a new MRI technique known as Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer (CEST) imaging for assessing the extent of potentially salvageable brain tissue (penumbra) around an area of infarction. CEST imaging works by looking at the chemicals in the brain cells. The chemicals may change when cells are affected by stroke. Stroke patients are not normally treated with with clot-busting drugs or clot-retrieving devices if they arrive at hospital many hours after the stroke because treatment may not help and in some cases it may cause more harm than good. However, the new MRI technique could detect those stroke patients who arrive at hospital many hours after the stroke but still have salvageable brain – in these cases it would be helpful to treat these patients and therefore stop those cells from dying.
However, there are several technical issues that need to be addressed before CEST can be adopted as a routine clinical assessment. CEST in Stroke hopes to address these issues by using an alternate MRI sequence capable of acquiring CEST data over a large portion of the brain in approximately in 10 minutes.
The overall aim of study is to determine the feasibility of CEST imaging for assessing the extent of penumbra, in order to determine which patients may benefit from re-perfusion interventions who would otherwise not be eligible. If the study is successful, further research will be implemented to help clinical decision making in stroke patients who present outside of conventional time windows.
REC name
London - Camberwell St Giles Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/LO/0625
Date of REC Opinion
4 May 2018
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion