Utility of leptomeningeal collaterals in predicting intracranial atherosclerosis-related large vessel occlusion in endovascular treatment

Earlier or preprocedural identification of occlusion pathomechanism is crucial for effective endovascular treatment. As leptomeningeal collaterals tend to develop well in chronic ischemic conditions such as intracranial atherosclerosis (ICAS), we investigated whether leptomeningeal collaterals can be a preprocedural marker of ICAS-related large vessel occlusion (ICAS-LVO) in endovascular treatment. A total of 226 patients who underwent endovascular treatment were retrospectively reviewed. We compared the pattern of leptomeningeal collaterals between patients with ICAS-LVO and without. Leptomeningeal collaterals were assessed by preprocedural computed tomography angiography (CTA) and basically categorized by three different collateral assessment methods. Better leptomeningeal collaterals were significantly associated with ICAS-LVO, although they were not independent for ICAS-LVO. When leptomeningeal collaterals were dichotomized to incomplete (<100%) and complete (100%), the latter was significantly more frequent in patients with ICAS-LVO (52.5% versus 20.4%) and remained an independent factor for ICAS-LVO (odds ratio, 3.32; 95% confidence interval, 1.52–7.26; p = 0.003). The area under the curve (AUC) value of complete leptomeningeal collateral supply was 0.660 for discrimination of ICAS-LVO. Incomplete leptomeningeal collateral supply was not likely ICAS-LVO, based on the high negative predictive value (88.6%). Considering its negative predictive value and the independent association between complete leptomeningeal collateral supply and ICAS-LVO, leptomeningeal collaterals could be helpful in the preprocedural determination of occlusion pathomechanism.