Abstract
Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a time-dependent treatable cause of morbidity and mortality. Despite the increasing stroke incidence in developing countries, parallel increasing stroke thrombolysis rates have not been documented. This study aims to determine trends in patient characteristics and rates of recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) use in AIS patients in a tertiary care center in northern India. All AIS patients presenting within 8 hours of symptoms onset from January 2011 to December 2015 were enrolled and analyzed. A total of 867 AIS patients presented within 8 hours of symptoms onset. Out of 593 eligible patients, 189 (31.87%) underwent intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) with rtPA within 4.5 hours of the window period. Patients (undergoing) IVT had onset-to-door times of 2 hours or less (23.81%), 2-3 hours (33.86%), and 3.0-4.5 hours (42.33%). IVT rates in 2 hours or less of symptom onset increased from 22% to 25% and IVT rates in 2-3 hours increased from 38.9% to 43.8%. Door-to-computerized tomographic time (median 27 versus 11 minutes, P = .0001) and door-to-needle time (median 83 versus 67 minutes, P = .011) improved, with a significant improvement of computerized tomography imaging time within 25 minutes of arrival (from 50% to 78.4%, P = .014). Post-IVT symptomatic hemorrhage was noted in 5 patients (2.65%). The median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score at presentation was 11, whereas a favorable modified Rankin Scale score (0-1) at 3 months was seen in 39.68%. Encouraging trends in IVT over the years may be indicative of increasing community awareness of stroke and improving quality of stroke care in developing countries such as India.
Published Version
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