Evaluation of white matter hypodensities on computed tomography in stroke patients using the Fazekas score

Salvatore Rudilosso; Luis San Román; Jordi Blasco; María Hernández-Pérez; Xabier Urra; Ángel Chamorro

doi:10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.06.011

Evaluation of white matter hypodensities on computed tomography in stroke patients using the Fazekas score

Clin Imaging. 2017 Nov-Dec:46:24-27. doi: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.06.011. Epub 2017 Jul 3.

Authors

Salvatore Rudilosso¹, Luis San Román², Jordi Blasco², María Hernández-Pérez³, Xabier Urra⁴, Ángel Chamorro¹

Affiliations

¹ Functional Unit of Cerebrovascular Diseases, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain.
² Department of Radiology, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain.
³ Department of Neuroscience, Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
⁴ Functional Unit of Cerebrovascular Diseases, Hospital Clinic, Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: [email protected].

PMID: 28688243
DOI: 10.1016/j.clinimag.2017.06.011

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the reliability of the Fazekas score on brain CT in acute stroke patients.

Methods: Two raters evaluated the Fazekas score in 157 CT scans from consecutive patients with acute stroke.

Results: The Fazekas scores on brain CT scans showed consistent (weighted κ, 0.73) and moderate (weighted κ, 0.56) interobserver agreement for periventricular and deep white matter areas, respectively. Intraobserver reliability was substantial for both areas (weighted κ, 0.85 and 0.8).

Conclusion: The Fazekas score on CT can be used to reliably grade white matter changes, and can be a useful tool when MRI is not available.

Keywords: Fazekas score; Stroke; White matter changes.

Publication types

Validation Study

MeSH terms

Aged
Female
Humans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging / methods
Male
Middle Aged
Reproducibility of Results
Stroke / pathology*
Tomography, X-Ray Computed / methods
White Matter / pathology*