Recovery of injured corticospinal tracts after late recanalisation of basilar artery occlusion

In this study,we performed emergency stent angioplasty in a patient with basilar artery occlusion(BAO)at 21 hours after onset.Serial diffusion tensor tract imaging revealed that the ischaemic corticospinal tracts(CSTs),which passed through pontine infarct,rapidly recovered to normal level even after delayed reperfusion.This case provided in vivo evidences that ischaemic white matter was still salvageable even after prolonged ischaemia.It also provided a new method(diffusion tensor tract imaging)and a novel therapeutic target(white matter)in the evaluation and treatment of acute BAO.