MRI-Proven Incident Ischemia: A New Marker of Disease Progression in Small Vessel Diseases | Stroke
BACKGROUND: In ischemic cerebral small vessel diseases (cSVD), recurrent ischemic stroke is rare (2%–3% per year). Because acute ischemia may not always lead to stroke in cSVD due to the small size of lesions, acute stroke may not reliably reflect ischemic activity or the risk of further clinical worsening, as both incident lacunes and incidental diffusion-weighted imaging–positive lesions can occur without stroke symptoms. We aimed to evaluate the total ischemic activity by measuring the incidence of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)–proven incident ischemia, independent of the presence of stroke symptoms in a large cohort of cSVD. METHODS: DHU-LAC is an ongoing French multicenter cohort study of MRI-proven ischemic stroke presumably due to cSVD. We report data on patients recruited between June 2018 and October 2023. In DHU-LAC, patients are enrolled within 15 days of stroke onset and are cared for according to current guidelines. During the first 6 months, patients are systematically
