Abstract
Perfusion weighted imaging (PWI) had been introduced as a clinical tool in the mid 90 s and had quickly gained popularity, mainly in advanced medical facilities. The idea known as diffusion-perfusion mismatch (DPM) was expected to reflect regions that are at risk for infarction but may be still salvageable through thrombolysis. Although this concept seemed to be a simple and plausible one, the negative results from large-scale clinical trials have shock the reliability of this scheme. Research results of the tissue fate prediction have also shown that these may be challenging through the use of PWI. Thus, the value of PWI has been always questioned in the past few years. If, however, one limits its use to assessing the presence of ischemia, then it becomes apparent that this is indeed a powerful diagnostic tool. We thus believe that, despite the negative results from recent studies, the PWI will continue to be part of the clinical routine.
