Significance of Early Perfusion Weighted MRI for the Diagnosis of TIA

ABSTRACT

We report on three patients with transient focal neurologic deficits that completely resolved. In all cases, initial perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) performed 1 hour after being free of symptoms showed a defect in the time-to-peak (TTP) map in the area with normal diffusion-weight imaging (DWI) findings. After 24 hours, DWI showed a high signal intensity in exactly the same area as the TTP defect. Therefore, early PWI provides a rapid evaluation of cerebral hemodynamics in transient ischemic attack.