Magnetic resonance imaging-based cerebral tissue classification reveals distinct spatiotemporal patterns of changes after stroke in non-human primates

Background: Spatial and temporal changes in brain tissue after acute ischemic stroke are still poorly understood. Aims of this study were three-fold: (1) to determine unique temporal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patterns at the acute, subacute and chronic stages after stroke in macaques by combining quantitative T-2 and diffusion MRI indices into MRI 'tissue signatures', (2) to evaluate temporal differences in these signatures between transient (n = 2) and permanent (n = 2) middle cerebral artery occlusion, and (3) to correlate histopathology findings in the chronic stroke period to the acute and subacute MRI derived tissue signatures. Results: An improved iterative self-organizing data analysis algorithm was used to combine T-2, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), and fractional anisotropy (FA) maps across seven successive timepoints (1, 2, 3, 24, 72, 144, 240 h) which revealed five temporal MRI signatures, that were different from the normal tissue pattern (P