Abstract 1122‐000199: Real‐World Bridging with Intra‐Arterial Therapy is Safe After Tenectplase in Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke
Introduction : The safety profile of IV tenecteplase (TNK) as a bridging therapy to Intra‐arterial therapy (IAT) is not well‐established in patients receiving acute ischemic stroke therapy. Our objective was to evaluate the incidence of hemorrhagic transformation in subjects who received TNK followed by IAT outside of clinical trial setting. Methods : Electronic medical records of subjects with stroke secondary to LVO who received TNK and IAT within 4.5 hours of last known normal were reviewed. CT head within 24 hours post‐TNK was evaluated for hemorrhagic transformation (HT). Severity was determined by ECASS III criteria Symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was defined as an increase in NIHSS greater than or equal to 4. Clinical outcomes were assessed with NIHSS at admission, discharge and mRS scores at one month. Z score population proportions were used for subgroup analysis. Social Science Statistics was used for data analysis. Results : From October 2020 to April 2021, 20 subjects received IV tenecteplase. Four subjects did not have LVO or undergo IAT and were excluded from study. Four subjects (25%) developed hemorrhagic transformation. Of this subset, 2 subjects (12.5%) had asymptomatic HI‐1, 1 subject had symptomatic HI‐2, and 1 subject had asymptomatic PH‐1. One subject developed intracranial hemorrhage (ICH score 5) outside of stroke region (intraventricular, subarachnoid, infratentorial parenchymal) without evidence of hemorrhagic transformation of ischemic stroke. In subgroup analysis between subjects with HT and without HT, there was no statistically significant difference in intra‐arterial non‐thrombolytics (z = 0.1393, p = 0.44433); there was a trend towards significance in number of passes (z = 1.2534, p = .10565) and periprocedural IV heparin use for intracranial stenting and/or angioplasty (z = 0.9342, p = 0.17619). There was a statistically significant increase of HT when periprocedural IV integrilin (z = 1.6727, p = 0.04746) was used. Conclusions : Our small subset of early real‐world experience demonstrates a higher rate of symptomatic transformation in bridging with TNK when compared with alteplase. Larger prospective studies are needed to validate our findings.