In the urgent calculus of stroke care, where minutes determine which brain tissue lives and which is lost, researchers have tested whether spectral CT angiography — a lower-radiation imaging approach — might one day replace the standard perfusion scans that guide treatment decisions. Studying 39 patients with acute ischemic stroke, the team found that iodine density mapping can approximate the boundaries of irreversible brain damage at a population level, but not yet with the precision individual patients require. The technology stands at a familiar threshold in medicine: promising enough to p