Extended treatment in cerebral ischemia score 2c or 3 as goal of successful endovascular treatment is associated with clinical benefit

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Successful reperfusion, defined as a modified treatment in cerebral ischemia (mTICI) score 2b or 3, is an important goal for endovascular treatment (EVT) of stroke. Recently, an extension of the mTICI score with an additional grade 2c indicating near-complete reperfusion (expanded TICI, eTICI) and a revised definition of success as eTICI 2c or 3 were proposed. We evaluate whether eTICI 2c translates into improved clinical outcome compared to eTICI 2b. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Consecutive patients with large vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation who underwent EVT between December 2013 and December 2020 were included. Clinical outcome measures were favorable functional outcome at 90 days (modified Rankin Scale mRS scores 0 to 2 or return to pre-stroke mRS) and early neurological improvement (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale NIHSS improvement ≥4 points or a score of 0-1 at 24 h). RESULTS: Of 1282 included patients (median age 76, median NIHSS 16), reperfusion was classified as eTICI 2b in 410 (32%), eTICI 2c in 242 (19%) and eTICI 3 in 464 (36%). eTICI 2c differed significally from 2b with respect to early neurological improvement (aOR = 1.49, 95% CI = 1.01-2.19). No statistically significant difference in favorable functional outcome at 90 days was found (eTICI 2c vs 2b, aOR = 1.31, 95% CI = 0.88-2.00). CONCLUSION: Our study indicates early clinical benefit at 24 h of achieving eTICI 2c compared to eTICI 2b, but no significant difference was seen in favorable functional outcome at 90 days. Our results support eTICI 2c and 3 as the goal of a successful thrombectomy but do not exclude eTICI 2b as an acceptable result.