Minor-to-mild stroke patients with LVO achieved excellent and favorable functional outcomes at 3 months in similar proportions between urgent MT versus delayed MT associated with BMT. There is thus an urgent need for randomized trials to define the effectiveness of MT in this patient subgroup.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE:Despite the improvement in technology, endovascular treatment of bifurcation intracranial wide-neck aneurysms remains challenging, mainly due to the difficulty of maintaining coils within the aneurysm sac without compromising the patency of bifurcation arteries. The Woven EndoBridge (WEB) device is a recent intrasaccular braided device specifically dedicated to treating such aneurysms with a wide neck by disrupting the flow in the aneurysmal neck and promoting progressive aneurysmal thrombosis.

had full access to all the data in the study and take responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis".

Background Intracranial aneurysms may be associated with an underlying arteriopathy, leading to arterial wall fragility. Arterial tortuosity is a major characteristic of some connective tissue disease. Aim To determine whether intracranial aneurysm is associated with an underlying arteriopathy. Methods Using a case-control design, from May 2012 to May 2013, we selected intracranial aneurysm cases and controls from consecutive patients who had conventional cerebral angiography in our center. Cases were patients with newly diagnosed intracranial aneurysm. Controls were patients who had diagnostic cerebral angiography and free of aneurysm. The prevalence of tortuosity, retrospectively assessed according to standard definitions, was compared between cases and controls and, association between tortuosity and some aneurysm characteristics was examined, in cases only. Results About 659 arteries from 233 patients (112 cases and 121 controls) were examined. Tortuosity was found in 57 (51%) cases and 31 (26%) controls (adjusted OR = 2.71; 95%CI, 1.53-4.80). The same trend was found when looking at each tortuosity subtype (simple tortuosity, coil, kink) or at carotid or vertebral territory separately. In contrast, no association between tortuosity and rupture status, aneurysm number or neck size was found. Conclusions Cervical artery tortuosity is significantly associated with intracranial aneurysm, although not related to main aneurysm characteristics. Our results support the presence of an underlying diffuse arteriopathy in intracranial aneurysm patients.

Background The association between time to reperfusion and clinical outcome is well known in anterior circulation strokes, whereas the impact of main time metrics remains unknown in posterior circulation strokes. We investigated the clinical effect of different time intervals from symptom onset to reperfusion on the 90‐day clinical outcome in acute ischemic stroke patients with basilar artery occlusion, and especially in the subset population presenting a low stroke volume on baseline diffusion‐weighted imaging. Methods and Results We studied patients included in the prospective, multicenter, observational ETIS (Endovascular Treatment in Ischemic Stroke) registry who had had basal artery occlusion and had achieved successful reperfusion (modified Thrombolysis In Cerebral Infarction 2b‐3). Three time intervals (onset to reperfusion, onset to imaging, and imaging to reperfusion) were considered in all patients and separately in patients with pc‐ ASPECTS (posterior‐circulation Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score) <8 and ≥8 on baseline diffusion‐weighted imaging. The primary end point was good outcome defined as 90‐day modified Rankin Scale scores of 0 to 2. Among the 95 included patients, 38 (40%) achieved a good outcome. In all patients, no significant association was found between the different time intervals and outcome. In patients evaluated with diffusion‐weighted imaging (n=61) at baseline, a significant negative association was found between imaging‐to‐reperfusion time for patients with pc‐ ASPECTS <8 (adjusted odds ratio=0.4 per 30‐minute increase; 95% CI 0.18‐0.85; P =0.02) compared with those with pc‐ ASPECTS ≥8. Conclusions In patients with basilar artery occlusion and pc‐ ASPECTS <8 at baseline diffusion‐weighted imaging, clinical outcome is highly dependent on the time from imaging to reperfusion, which suggests that rapid endovascular reperfusion should be performed after imaging in these patients.

SUMMARY:The PulseRider is a novel endovascular device specifically designed to treat bifurcation intracranial aneurysms with wide necks. In an international series, we report the results of PulseRider stent-assisted coiling of 15 patients (9 women and 6 men; mean age, 62.6 years) with 15 unruptured wide-neck (median dome size, 8 mm; median neck size, 5 mm) bifurcation aneurysms. Failure of PulseRider treatment occurred in 1 case, and 1 intraprocedural thromboembolic complication was observed. There was no mortality or neurologic permanent morbidity at discharge and at 1 month. Immediate angiographic outcome showed 12 complete occlusions and 2 neck remnants. Follow-up at 6 months was available for 3 aneurysms and demonstrated 2 complete aneurysm occlusions and 1 growing neck remnant. In this small series of selected patients, PulseRider stent-assisted coiling of wide-neck bifurcation aneurysms was feasible with low procedural complication rates. Angiographic follow-up will be required to evaluate the efficacy of the PulseRider device. ABBREVIATION: IA ϭ intracranial aneurysm

The central nervous system is an immunologically active environment where several components of the immune and inflammatory response interact among them and with the constituents of nervous tissue and vasculature in a critically orchestrated manner, influencing physiologic and pathologic processes. In particular, inflammation takes a central role in the pathogenesis of intracranial aneurysms (IAs). The common pathway for aneurysm formation involves endothelial dysfunction and injury, a mounting inflammatory response, vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) phenotypic modulation, extracellular matrix remodeling, and subsequent cell death and vessel wall degeneration. We conducted a literature review by Medline and EMBASE databases using the searching terms "IA" and "cerebral aneurysm" and further search was performed to link the search terms with the following key words: inflammation, hemodynamic(s), remodeling, macrophages, neutrophils, lymphocytes, complement, VSMCs, mast cells, cytokines, and inflammatory biomarkers. The aim of this review was to summarize the most recent and pertinent evidences regarding the articulated processes of aneurysms formation, growth, and rupture. Knowledge of these processes may guide the diagnosis and treatment of these vascular malformations, the most common cause of subarachnoid hemorrhage, which prognosis remains dismal.

Endovascular therapy of intracranial aneurysms with the WEB-SL device allows treatment of wide-neck aneurysms with a high rate of neck remnant at 1 year, at least partially explained by WEB compression. Initial size selection and technologic improvements could be an option for optimization of aneurysm occlusion in WEB-SL treatment.