IntroductionTo determine the influence of white matter hyperintensity (WMH) burden on functional outcome, rate of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH), and procedural success in patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treated by mechanical thrombectomy (MT) with current stentriever/aspiration devices.MethodsPatients with AIS due to large vessel occlusion (LVO) from the Thrombectomie des Artères Cérébrales (THRACE) trial and prospective cohorts from 2 academic comprehensive stroke centers treated with MT were pooled and retrospectively analyzed. WMH volumes were obtained by semiautomated planimetric segmentation and tested in association with the rate of favorable outcome (90-day functional independence), substantial recanalization after MT, and sICH.ResultsA total of 496 participants were included between 2015 and 2018 (50% female, mean age 68.1 ± 15.0 years). Overall, 434 (88%) patients presented with detectable WMH (mean ± SD 4.93 ± 7.7). Patients demonstrated increasingly worse outcomes with increasing WMH volumes (odds ratio [aOR]1.05 per 1-cm3 increase for unfavorable outcome, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.01–1.06, p = 0.014). Fifty-seven percent of patients in the first quartile of WMH volume vs 28% in the fourth quartile demonstrated favorable outcome (p < 0.001). WMH severity was not associated with sICH rate (aOR 0.99, 95% CI 0.93–1.04, p = 0.66), nor did it influence recanalization success (aOR 0.99, 95% CI 0.96–1.02, p = 0.84).ConclusionOur study provides evidence that in patients with AIS due to LVO and high burden of WMH as assessed by pretreatment MRI, the safety and efficacy profiles of MT are similar to those in patients with lower WMH burden and confirms that they are at higher risk of unfavorable outcome. Because more than a quarter of patients in the highest WMH quartile experienced favorable 3 months outcome, WMH burden may not be a good argument to deny MT.ClinicalTrials.gov IdentifierNCT01062698.

Acute ischemic stroke affects men and women differently. In particular, women are often reported to experience higher acute stroke severity than men. We derived a low-dimensional representation of anatomical stroke lesions and designed a Bayesian hierarchical modeling framework tailored to estimate possible sex differences in lesion patterns linked to acute stroke severity (National Institute of Health Stroke Scale). This framework was developed in 555 patients (38% female). Findings were validated in an independent cohort (n = 503, 41% female). Here, we show brain lesions in regions subserving motor and language functions help explain stroke severity in both men and women, however more widespread lesion patterns are relevant in female patients. Higher stroke severity in women, but not men, is associated with left hemisphere lesions in the vicinity of the posterior circulation. Our results suggest there are sex-specific functional cerebral asymmetries that may be important for future investigations of sex-stratified approaches to management of acute ischemic stroke.