Personalizing acute therapies for ischemic stroke

The last 2 years has seen unprecedented advances in acute stroke care. In 2015, multiple independent clinical trials demonstrated that endovascular thrombectomy early after acute ischemic stroke (AIS) onset is highly effective for reducing long-term disability. 1-5 More recently, the DAWN trial demonstrated the efficacy of thrombectomy in select patients up to 24 hours after stroke onset. 6 Critical to the success of these trials has been the use of rapid and robust neuroimaging methods that helped select appropriate patients based on clot location or core/penumbral signatures. Neuroimaging has become the precision medicine equivalent in AIS, personalizing care based on advanced imaging measures.