Today, I review, link to, and embed Radiopaedia‘s “Stroke Protocol (CT)”. Last revised by Rohit Sharma on 12 Sep 2025.
All that follows is from the above resource.
A CT stroke protocol, often referred to as a code stroke CT, has become a fairly widespread and standardized approach to imaging patients presenting with acute neurological symptoms that may represent cerebral infarction or cerebral hemorrhage (together grouped under the umbrella term stroke).
Indications
A CT stroke protocol is obtained in the emergency setting to rapidly diagnose and quantify patients presenting with probable ischemic strokes and to enable appropriate urgent management (e.g. endovascular clot retrieval or intravenous thrombolysis).
In most centers, CT is favored over MRI in the ultra-acute setting due to time and access constraints, despite acknowledging that MRI, and particularly diffusion-weighted imaging, is superior in identifying small infarcts and defining infarct core 1-3.
