Manuscript received August 22, 2023; revised October 9, 2023; accepted October 30, 2023; published February 15, 2024.

Abstract—The Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) is a simple and reliable systematic method used to quantify and explore acute ischemic stroke. It was initially developed to standardize the assessment of the early ischemic changes’ extent within the Middle Cerebral Artery (MCA). The ASPECTS assessment has been increasingly incorporated into treatment decision-making and has been used in several randomized clinical trials for endovascular treatment decision-making. The e-ASPECTS software is a tool for the automated use of ASPECTS. The purpose of this paper is twofold: The first objective is to present an advanced clinical that streamlines the extraction of ASPECTS regions of interest. This tool aids neuro-physicians by automating the segmentation Department process through preprocessing steps involving skull bone stripping, edge detection, and thresholding. The second objective is to propose an automated semi-quantitative method using Non-Contrast Computed Tomography (NCCT), enabling neuro-physicians to accurately diagnose and evaluate acute ischemic stroke. This comprehensive approach improves the exploration, diagnosis, and evaluation of acute ischemic stroke, bolstering clinical decision-making and treatment strategies. Experimental results were promising and depicted an interesting accuracy level ranging from 0.81 (internal capsule) to 0.98 (caudate), with a greater agreement for cortical areas. The proposed automated ASPECTS method presents an independent predictor for clinical practice and ischemic core judgment and treatment selection.

Keywords—acute ischemic stroke, Non-Contrast Computed Tomography (NCCT) image, Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score (ASPECTS) score diagnosis

Cite: Haifa Touati, Areej Alasiry, Abdulmajid Al-Junaid, Lamia Sellami, Yesmine Ben Hamida, Ahmed Ben Hamida, and Khaireddine Ben Mahfoudh, "Contribution to an Advanced Clinical Aided Tool Dedicated to Explore ASPECTS Score of Ischemic Stroke," Journal of Image and Graphics, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 40-52, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided that the article is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.