Temporal changes in tissue plasticity and microvasculature as a gauge of recovery in stroke

Motivation: Stroke is major global cause of death. However markers of recovery are still lacking. Goal(s): Vasculature affects shear waves propagation acting as a scattering source, ultimately affecting waves dispersion properties measurable with MRE. Approach: In this study we use multi frequency MRE to find the fingerprint of vascular remodelling after stroke in the dispersion properties of waves, and explored the temporal profile of vascular and tissue remodelling and its relashionship with recovery. Results: We show for the first time in-vivo that MRE senses tissue integrity as well as vascular organization. We show that such parameters have a good prognostic value. Impact: We show that MRE could disentangle tissue constitutive properties and vasculature, and thereby could provide new insights in the understanding of tissue plasticity after stroke and potentially constitute a relevant marker in the context of stroke therapy.