MediAI

  Introduction Every minute matters. When an acute ischemic stroke occurs, approximately 1.9 million neurons are lost every minute that cerebral blood flow remains interrupted. What begins as a microscopic thrombus rapidly evolves into irreversible neuronal death unless timely reperfusion is achieved. The difference between independent living and lifelong disability is often measured not in hours—but in minutes. For decades, stroke management was constrained by rigid time windows. Today, however, advances in multimodal imaging have shifted clinical decision-making from a purely time-based paradigm to a tissue-based approach. Rather than asking "When did the stroke occur?" , clinicians increasingly ask "How much salvageable brain tissue remains?" This transformation has fundamentally reshaped emergency neuroradiology and acute stroke intervention. The uploaded reference emphasizes that modern imaging enables identification of the infarct core, the ischemic penumbra...