A system for the early detection and treatment of catheter-induced ischemic strokes includes a magnetic resonance system (20) and a processor (36). The magnetic resonance system includes a sequence controller for performing each of a plurality of imaging sequences and a sequence memory (32) which stores at least a magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) sequence, a diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) sequence, and a perfusion-weighted imaging (PWI) sequence. The processor is programmed to control the magnetic resonance system to perform the steps of: performing the MRA sequence to generate a baseline MRA image performing a catheter-tracking procedure to track a catheter performing the DWI sequence after the catheter procedure to generate a diffusion-weighted image performing the PWI sequence to generate a perfusion-weighted image and combining the diffusion-weighted image and the perfusion-weighted image to generate a combined image for evaluating the ischemic stroke.
