Treatment of acute ischemic stroke in China

Abstract

Objective To assess the treatment of acute iachemic stroke in China against national and international guidelines.Methods The demographic, clinical and management data were prospectively collected for each consecutive patient with a diagnosis of acute iscbemic stroke (≥ 15 years old) in 62hospitals of 32 cities including.Results A total of 13 038 stroke patients were screened over the full 5-month study period.Of these patients, 6622 were excluded because of outside the time window, rapid death, refusal, and that the final diagnosis was not a stroke and others.And 6416 patients were recruited with complete baseline data.Of these patients, there were 4783 patients with iachemic stroke.The mean admission-time was 20 hours (interqnartilc range 3.8-59.0 hours).Of them 1019 patients (21.3%)arrived at hospitals within 3 hours of stroke onset.Only 91 (1.9%) patients received thrombolysis.There was high rate of use of traditional Chinese medicines (75.9%) and neuroprotective agents (83.1%).80.5% patients received antiplatelet therapy.23.5% patients received neither thrombelysis nor aspirin therapy.Conclusions The treatment of acute ischemic stroke in China is not optimal The use of aspirin is similar with that in Western countries though there are still some differences with the guidelines, Neuroprotective agents and traditional Chinese medicines are overused nevertheless the proportion receiving efficient thrombolysis is much less.The admission-time after stroke onset in China is longer than Western countries.The majority of patients are unable to get benefits from hyperacute stroke diagnosis and therapy, including thrombolysis treatment. Key words: Brain ischcmia; Stroke; Drug therapy; China