scholarly journals Frequency of stroke patients qualified for recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-TPA) and constraints in Zahedan 2016

Author(s):  
Alireza Khosravi ◽  
Mohammad-taghi Farzadfard ◽  
Arezoo Abdollahpour

Background: Brain stroke is one of the common causes of mortality and disability. By introducing r-TPA into the global drug market and its effect on the patients’ prognosis, using this drug is recommended in all patients with ischemic stroke who visited less than 4.5 hours after start stroke symptoms. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency of stroke patients qualified for recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-TPA) and its constraints.Methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 244 patients examined with stroke admitted to the neurology of Zahedan city hospital in 2016. Information form were completed with demographic data, transmission method, referral time, CT scan preparation time, and the response of the patients' trials, and finally the data were inserted in SPSS.16 software and analysed by statistical methods.Results: Out of all patients with ischemic stroke, 28 (11.5%) patients had contraindication to receive drug. Of 216 remain patients, 201 patients (93.1%) had no possibility to receive r-TPA due to the loss of gold time and only 15 patients (6.9%) had possibility to receive drug because of visited 4.5 hours before the beginning of symptoms. Of them, 3(20%) patients due to delay in CT scan and test results, had no possibility to receive r-TPA. In summary, of all patients with inclusion criteria, only 12 (5.5%) patients could use the r-TPA in this study.Conclusions: The most important barrier to using r-TPA has been the loss of golden time and training to raise awareness of the society can lead to early referral from the onset of stroke symptoms.

Stroke ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 46 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mushtaq H Qureshi ◽  
Shayaan M Khan ◽  
Nauman Jahangir ◽  
Ahmed A Malik ◽  
Melissa Freese ◽  
...  

Background: The number of acute ischemic stroke patients who are on both aspirin and clopidogrel treatment at time of acute ischemic event is increasing. There is limited data regarding the safety and efficacy of intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) treatment in such patients. Methods: We reviewed the medical records and imaging data of consecutive patients with acute ischemic stroke who received IV rt-PA within 4.5 hours of symptom onset. We stratified the patients based on active regular use of antiplatelet medications: monotherapy (aspirin or clopidogrel), combination therapy (aspirin and clopidogrel), and no therapy and compared the rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), neurological improvement (≥4 points in National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [NIHSS], and favorable outcome (modified Rankin scale [mRS] 0-1) at discharge between the three groups. Results: A total of 88 acute ischemic stroke patients (mean age±SD; 69.88 ±15) were treated with IV rt-PA within the study duration. Of the 88 patients 45 (50.6%), 37 (41.6%), and 52 (58.4) were on monotherapy, combination therapy, or no therapy at time of presentation. The proportion of patients who developed symptomatic ICHs were similar (p=0.8) in monotherapy, combination therapy, and no therapy groups (3.3%, 0.0%, and 4.1%, respectively). The rates of neurological improvement were greater in patients on monotherapy (20%) (p=0.03) followed by combination therapy (11.1%), and no therapy groups (2.0%). There was no significant reduction in the rate of favorable outcome at discharge among patients on combination treatment compared with no treatment (odds ratio 0.8 , 95% confidence interval 0.4-1.8 ) after adjusting for age and initial NIHSS score strata (<10, 10-19, and ≥20). Conclusions: Compared with patients on no antiplatelet treatment, acute ischemic stroke patients who are actively using aspirin and clopidogrel appear to have similar risks and benefits with IV rt-PA treatment.


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