Emergency department experience of primary diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging for the patient with lacunar syndrome

Study on the risk prediction for cerebral infarction after transient ischemic attack: A STROBE compliant study

Transient ischemic attack (TIA) is often recurrent, and about one-third of patients will progress to cerebral infarction. Rapidly identifying high-risk patients is pivotal to prevent the development of cerebral infarction. Therefore, this study aimed to evaluate the value of ABCD score, ABCD score combined with magnetic resonance diffusion weighted imaging (DWI) and intracranial arterial magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) in predicting cerebral infarction after 2 to 30 days of transient ischemic attack (TIA).182 patients with TIA from August 2011 to August 2014 were enrolled as study subjects, and their clinical data, test results of DWI and MRA were collected. The incidence of cerebral infarction was observed at 2 days, 7 days and 30 days after TIA in patients with TIA, through scoring according to the 7-point ABCD score method proposed by Johnston. The relationship between ABCD score, performances of DWI and MRA and the early incidence of cerebral infarction after TIA was analyzed. The accuracy rating of ABCD score and ABCD + DWI + MRA score used for predicting the early incidence of cerebral infarction after TIA were compared with each other.The incidence of cerebral infarction after TIA was 19 cases (10.4%) in 2 days, 42 cases (23.1%) in 7 days, 56 cases (30.8%) in 30 days respectively. For the ABCD score of incidence of cerebral infarction 2 to 30 days after TIA, that of those with high risk was higher than that with medium risk, and that with the medium risk was higher than that with low risk (P < .05). The area under the curve of ABCD + DWI + MRA score and ABCD score predicting the incidence of cerebral infarction was: in 2 days: 0.782 and 0.748, in 7 days: 0.839 and 0.801, in 30 days: 0.780 and 0.757, P < .05.Compared with ABCD score, ABCD score combined with DWI and MRA can further improve the accuracy of prediction for cerebral infarction after TIA.

Advanced radiology utilization in a tertiary care emergency department from 2001 to 2010

OBJECTIVE

To evaluate the utilization trends of advanced radiology, i.e. computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), examination in an emergency department (ED) of an academic medical center from 2001 to 2010.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We assessed the overall CT and MRI utilization, and the ED patient encounters. Each examination was evaluated according to the patient's age and anatomically relevant regions.

RESULTS

During the study period, 737,760 patient visited the ED, and 156,287 CT and 35,018 MRI examinations were performed. The number of annual ED patients increased from 63,770 in 2001 to 94,609 in 2010 (P = 0.018). The rate of CT utilization increased from 105.5 per 1000 patient visits in 2001 to 289.2 in 2010 (P<0.001), and the rate of MRI utilization increased from 8.1 per 1000 patient visits in 2001 to 74.6 in 2010 (P<0.001). In all of the patient age groups, the overall CT and MRI utilization increased. The greater the patient age, the more likely the use of advanced radiology [CT: 87.1 per 1000 patients in age <20 vs. 293.9 per 1000 in age>60 (P<0.001); MRI: 5.1 per 1000 patients in age <20 vs. 108.7 per 1000 in age>60 (P<0.001)]. Abdomen-pelvis (40.2%) and the head (35.7%) comprised the majority of CT scans, while the head (86.4%) comprised the majority of MRI examinations. The rates of advanced radiology use increased across all anatomical regions, with the highest increase being in chest CT (5.9 per 1000 to 49.2) and head MRI (7.2 per 1000 to 61.9).

CONCLUSION

We report a three-fold and nine-fold increase in the use of CT and MRI, respectively, during the study period. Additional studies will be required to understand the causes of this change and to determine the effect of advanced radiology utilization on the patient outcome.