Reperfusion Therapy For Acute Stroke Research Articles

Vascular cognitive impairment and dementia: Mechanisms, treatment, and future directions.

Worldwide, around 50 million people live with dementia, and this number is projected to triple by 2050. It has been estimated that 20% of all dementia cases have a predominant cerebrovascular pathology, while perhaps another 20% of vascular diseases contribute to a mixed dementia picture. Therefore, the vascular contribution to dementia affects 20 million people currently and will increase markedly in the next few decades, particularly in lower- and middle-income countries.In this review, we discuss the mechanisms of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) and review management. VCI refers to the spectrum of cerebrovascular pathologies that contribute to any degree of cognitive impairment, ranging from subjective cognitive decline, to mild cognitive impairment, to dementia. While acute cognitive decline occurring soon after a stroke is the most recognized form of VCI, chronic cerebrovascular disease, in particular cerebral small-vessel disease, can cause insidious cognitive decline in the absence of stroke. Moreover, cerebrovascular disease not only commonly co-occurs with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and increases the probability that AD pathology will result in clinical dementia, but may also contribute etiologically to the development of AD pathologies.Despite its enormous health and economic impact, VCI has been a neglected research area, with few adequately powered trials of therapies, resulting in few proven treatments. Current management of VCI emphasizes prevention and treatment of stroke and vascular risk factors, with most evidence for intensive hypertension control. Reperfusion therapies in acute stroke may attenuate the risk of VCI. Associated behavioral symptoms such as apathy and poststroke emotionalism are common. We also highlight novel treatment strategies that will hopefully lead to new disease course-modifying therapies. Finally, we highlight the importance of including cognitive endpoints in large cardiovascular prevention trials and the need for an increased research focus and funding for this important area.

Days Alive and Out of Hospital as an Outcome Measure in Patients Receiving Hyperacute Stroke Intervention.

Patient outcome after stroke is frequently assessed with clinical scales such as the modified Rankin Scale score (mRS). Days alive and out of hospital at 90 days (DAOH-90), which measures survival, time spent in hospital or rehabilitation settings, readmission and institutionalization, is an objective outcome measure that can be obtained from large administrative data sets without the need for patient contact. We aimed to assess the comparability of DAOH with mRS and its relationship with other prognostic variables after acute stroke reperfusion therapy. Consecutive patients with ischemic stroke treated with intravenous thrombolysis or endovascular thrombectomy were analyzed. DAOH-90 was calculated from a national minimum data set, a mandatory nationwide administrative database. mRS score at day 90 (mRS-90) was assessed with in-person or telephone interviews. The study included 1278 patients with ischemic stroke (714 male, median age 70 [59-79], median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score 14 [9-20]). Median DAOH-90 was 71 [29-84] and median mRS-90 score was 3 [2-5]. DAOH-90 was correlated with admission National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale score (Spearman rho -0.44, P<0.001) and Alberta Stroke Program Early CT [Computed Tomography] Score (Spearman rho 0.24, P<0.001). There was a strong association between mRS-90 and DAOH-90 (Spearman rho correlation -0.79, P<0.001). Area under receiver operating curve for predicting mRS score >0 was 0.86 (95% CI, 0.84-0.88), mRS score >1 was 0.88 (95% CI, 0.86-0.90) and mRS score >2 was 0.90 (95% CI, 0.89-0.92). In patients with stroke treated with reperfusion therapies, DAOH-90 shows reasonable comparability to the more established outcome measure of mRS-90. DAOH-90 can be readily obtained from administrative databases and therefore has the potential to be used in large-scale clinical trials and comparative effectiveness studies.

Relative Improvement in Language vs Motor Functions with Reperfusion Therapies for Acute Stroke due to Large Vessel Occlusion.

When weighing potential risks versus benefits of reperfusion therapy, the functions likely to recover if blood flow can be restored should be considered. Because deep and motor areas of the brain often infarct relatively early in acute stroke, we hypothesized that reperfusion therapies are more likely to improve language function and neglect (cortical functions) more than motor function. In this retrospective review of a prospectively collected database, patients with acute stroke due to large vessel occlusion), we evaluated percent improvement (mean change in score/maximum score) for different items of the National Institutes of Health Score Scale with and without endovascular thrombectomy, and/or intravenous thrombolysis. In total, 290 patients (mean age 61.8; SD 14.0; 47.9% female) met the inclusion criteria. For all outcome measures (percent change in language, total language, motor, and neglect) there were significant effects of treatment group (p<0.0001 for all), with the greatest change in the EVT +tPA group, then EVT only group, followed by tPA only, followed by no intervention. Differences between EVT + tPA and EVT only were not significant (p=.30 to 0.79 across outcomes). For patients with aphasia and/or right sided weakness before treatment, the percent change in language was significantly greater than the percent change in weakness (29.8% vs. 12.7%; t(93)=5.3;p<0.0001). Greater percent improvement in language was observed in all treatment groups (p=0.0003 to 0.03 across treatment groups). In patients with acute ischemic stroke due to LVO, improvements in all neurological functions occur with tPA, and even more with EVT (with and without IV tPA). However, gains in language are even greater than gains in motor function with both interventions. Few patients had neglect before treatment, but of those who did, the majority improved, and most (92.8%) improved with EVT.

Optimising Prehospital Pathways to Improve Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy Delivery: Systems-Based Approaches

Optimising Prehospital Pathways to Improve Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy Delivery: Systems-Based Approaches

In-hospital systems interventions in acute stroke reperfusion therapy: a meta-analysis.

The value of in-hospital systems-based interventions in streamlining treatment delays associated with reperfusion therapy delivery in acute ischaemic stroke (AIS), in the emergency department (ED), is poorly understood. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to assess and quantify the value of in-hospital systems-based interventions in streamlining reperfusion therapy delivery following AIS. Articles from the following databases were retrieved: Medline, Embase and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. The primary endpoint was in-hospital time metrics between the intervention and control group. The secondary endpoint included the rate of good functional outcome at 90days. 393 Systems intervention studies published after 2015 were screened, and 231 full articles were then read. In total, 35 studies with 35,815 patients were included in the final systematic review and 26 studies with 7,089 patients were used in the meta-analysis. The greatest time reductions from in-hospital system interventions were achieved in door-to-needle (DTN) time (SMD: -2.696, 95% CI: -2.976, -2.416, z = 3.03, p = 0.002). Systems interventions were also associated with a statistically significant improvement in mortality (RR: 0.25, 95% CI: 0.18, 0.38), rate of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage (RR: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.04, 0.1) and ≤60-minute reperfusion rates (RR: 0.63, 95% CI: 0.51, 0.79). The use of in-hospital workflow optimization is imperative to expedite reperfusion therapy delivery and improving patient outcomes. To reduce the morbidity and mortality of stroke globally, in-hospital workflow guidelines should be adhered to and incorporated including the optimal elements identified in this study.

Reperfusion Therapy in Acute Ischemic Stroke with Active Cancer: A Meta-Analysis Aided by Machine Learning

ObjectivesWhile the prevalence of active cancer patients experiencing acute stroke is increasing, the effects of active cancer on reperfusion therapy outcomes are inconclusive. Thus, we aimed to compare the safety and outcomes of reperfusion therapy in acute stroke patients with and without active cancer. Materials and MethodsA comprehensive literature search was conducted for studies comparing the effects of intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) or endovascular treatment (EVT) in ischemic stroke patients with and without active cancer. The literature was screened using both a manual and machine learning algorithm approach. The outcomes evaluated were symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (sICH), all-type intracerebral hemorrhage (aICH), successful recanalization, favorable outcomes (modified Rankin Scale, 0–2), and mortality. We calculated the pooled odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) using the random-effects model from the included studies. ResultsSeven studies were analyzed in this meta-analysis. IVT (n = 1012) was associated with an increased risk of sICH (OR, 9.80; 95% CI, 3.19–30.13) in the active cancer group. However, no significant differences in aICH, favorable outcomes, and mortality were found between groups. Although sICH and successful recanalization in the EVT group (n = 2496) were similar, we observed fewer favorable outcomes (OR, 0.55; 95% CI, 0.33–0.93) and a high prevalence of mortality (OR, 2.91; 95% CI, 1.89–4.47) in the active cancer group. ConclusionsReperfusion therapy may benefit selected patients with acute ischemic stroke with active cancer, considering the comparable clinical outcomes of IVT and procedure-related outcomes of EVT. These results should be cautiously interpreted and confirmed in future well-designed large-scale studies.

Abstract P395: High Risk Diabetics Risk of Recurrent Stroke and Cardiovascular Disease Persists Even With Patient Personalized Subspecialty Care

Introduction: Diabetes management is an important aspect of stroke prevention. To our knowledge, studies that focus specifically on the role of multidisciplinary teams for adjusting diabetes medications and diabetes education for stroke and cardiovascular disease prevention to compliment standard stroke prevention and nursing education are lacking. Here we sought to evaluate whether high risk diabetics, hemoglobin A1c (HA1c) &gt; 8%, admitted secondary to stroke would benefit from a multidisciplinary team model that also incorporates endocrinology consultation and diabetes education to personalized nursing education and education and management of the admitting service. Methods: Data was obtained from our Institutional Review Board approved stroke admission database from 2017 to November 2019. Regression analysis was used to identify significant associations between diabetes education (DE) and endocrine consultation (EC) with readmission rates with 30 days, re-admission within 30 days secondary to stroke, cardiovascular event or stroke within a year of the stroke admission, and medication change after controlling for age, sex, NIHSS, HbA1c, low density lipoprotein (LDL), reperfusion therapy for acute stroke. Follow-up HbA1c post hospitalization was available for only 17% of the population, and was not included in the regression models. Results: A total of 202 patients were included, median age 66 (interquartile range 56-75), 43% women, NIHSS median 5 (interquartile range (IQR, 2-9), LDL median 105 (IQR, 69-155), A1c median 9.5 (IQR, 8.5 -11.1), and 24% received reperfusion therapy. EC was associated with higher likelihood of a medication change (odds ratio (OR) 9.43, 95% confidence interval (CI) (3.22-30.69). DE was associated with younger age (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.92-0.99); higher A1c value (OR 1.47, 95% CI 1.18 - 1.87) and higher likelihood of cardiovascular event within a year of the stroke (OR 3.38, 95% CI 1.23 - 9.70). Conclusion: While the endocrine consultation does lead to medications changes with the intent of improving post discharge glycemic control, cardiovascular events were still more likely, possibly from DM disease severity. Further continuation of follow up of these patients with EC and DE after hospital discharge may be needed.

Effect of Transport Time on the Use of Reperfusion Therapy for Patients with Acute Ischemic Stroke in Korea.

BackgroundWe investigated the association between geographic proximity to hospitals and the administration rate of reperfusion therapy for acute ischemic stroke.MethodsWe identified patients with acute ischemic stroke who visited the hospital within 12 hours of symptom onset from a prospective nationwide multicenter stroke registry. Reperfusion therapy was classified as intravenous thrombolysis (IVT), endovascular therapy (EVT), or combined therapy. The association between the proportion of patients who were treated with reperfusion therapy and the ground transport time was evaluated using a spline regression analysis adjusted for patient-level characteristics. We also estimated the proportion of Korean population that lived within each 30-minute incremental service area from 67 stroke centers accredited by the Korean Stroke Society.ResultsOf 12,172 patients (mean age, 68 ± 13 years; men, 59.7%) who met the eligibility criteria, 96.5% lived within 90 minutes of ground transport time from the admitting hospital. The proportion of patients treated with IVT decreased significantly when stroke patients lived beyond 90 minutes of the transport time (P = 0.006). The proportion treated with EVT also showed a similar trend with the transport time. Based on the residential area, 98.4% of Korean population was accessible to 67 stroke centers within 90 minutes.ConclusionThe use of reperfusion therapy for acute stroke decreased when patients lived beyond 90 minutes of the ground transport time from the hospital. More than 95% of the South Korean population was accessible to 67 stroke centers within 90 minutes of the ground transport time.

Reperfusion Therapy for Acute Stroke in Pregnant and Post-Partum Women: A Canadian Survey.

A Canadian Stroke Best Practices consensus statement on Acute Stroke Management during pregnancy was published in 2018. The state of individual practice, however, is unknown. A survey on treatment of acute stroke in pregnant and post-partum women was distributed via the Canadian Stroke Consortium email list. Descriptive statistics (frequencies and proportions) were calculated for demographic and response variables and free-text responses were coded for thematic content. Thirty-five participants completed the survey; 12 had experience with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV-tPA), endovascular therapy (EVT), or both in pregnant patients. None had treatment-related complications. The majority (92%) of those who had not yet encountered the issue in practice expressed some reservation about giving IV-tPA to an otherwise eligible pregnant woman. In a theoretical scenario where an otherwise eligible pregnant woman was a candidate for both IV-tPA and EVT, 58% of respondents would have opted for EVT alone. Amongst this cohort comprised mainly of stroke sub-specialists, more than a third had treated pregnant patients with reperfusion therapy. The reported safety experience with both IV-tPA and EVT was reassuring. Overall, there was a hesitancy towards use of IV-tPA in pregnancy that is discordant with the recent consensus statement. Possible barriers to uptake identified through thematic analysis were concerns regarding risks of bleeding in the pregnant patient, presence of EVT as a perceived alternative, and the need for express consent from the patient and family.

Ethnic Differences in Access to Stroke Reperfusion Therapy in Northern New Zealand

Background: In New Zealand, Māori and Pacific people have higher age-adjusted stroke incidence rates, younger age at first stroke, and higher mortality at 12 months than other ethnic groups. We aimed to determine if access to acute stroke reperfusion therapy with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) or endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is equitable among ethnic groups. Methods: Data were obtained from the Northern Region component of the New Zealand Stroke Registry over the 21 months between January 1, 2018 and September 30, 2019. Data recorded included demographic details, self-identified ethnicity, treatment times, and clinical outcomes. National hospital discharge coding of patients admitted with ischemic stroke and stroke unspecified was used to determine the proportion of patients treated by ethnic group. Results: There were 537 patients normally resident in the Northern Region who received reperfusion therapy: 281 received IVT alone, 123 received EVT after bridging IVT, and 133 received EVT alone. Of the 537 patients treated with IVT or EVT, there were 81 (15.1%) Māori, 78 (14.5%) Pacific, 57 (10.6%) Asian, and 341 (63.5%) NZ European/other ethnicity patients. There were no ethnic differences in treatment process times. When compared with NZ European/others, Māori and Pacific people were younger, and Māori had worse neurological impairment at admission. A higher proportion of Māori were treated with EVT with a trend to higher proportion treated with IVT. Day 90 modified Rankin Scale (mRS) for EVT-treated patients was similar apart from Asian patients who had worse outcome when compared with NZ European/others (mRS 3 vs. 2; p = 0.03). Conclusions: This study has shown equitable access to acute stroke reperfusion therapies and largely similar outcomes in different ethnic groups in northern New Zealand.

Effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on acute stroke reperfusion therapy: data from the Lyon Stroke Center Network.

BackgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic would have particularly affected acute stroke care. However, its impact is clearly inherent to the local stroke network conditions. We aimed to assess the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on acute stroke care in the Lyon comprehensive stroke center during this period.MethodsWe conducted a prospective data collection of patients with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) treated with intravenous thrombolysis (IVT) and/or mechanical thrombectomy (MT) during the COVID-19 period (from 29/02/2020 to 10/05/2020) and a control period (from 29/02/2019 to 10/05/2019). The volume of reperfusion therapies and pre and intra-hospital delays were compared during both periods.ResultsA total of 208 patients were included. The volume of IVT significantly decreased during the COVID-period [55 (54.5%) vs 74 (69.2%); p = 0.03]. The volume of MT remains stable over the two periods [72 (71.3%) vs 65 (60.8%); p = 0.14], but the door-to-groin puncture time increased in patients transferred for MT (237 [187–339] vs 210 [163–260]; p < 0.01). The daily number of Emergency Medical Dispatch calls considerably increased (1502 [1133–2238] vs 1023 [960–1410]; p < 0.01).ConclusionsOur study showed a decrease in the volume of IVT, whereas the volume of MT remained stable although intra-hospital delays increased for transferred patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. These results contrast in part with the national surveys and suggest that the impact of the pandemic may depend on local stroke care networks.

Incidence and Association of Reperfusion Therapies With Poststroke Seizures: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.

We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the incidence and risk of seizures following acute stroke reperfusion therapy (intravenous thrombolysis [IVT] with r-tPA [recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator], mechanical thrombectomy or both). We searched major databases (MEDLINE, SCOPUS, and Cochrane Library) for articles published between 1995 and October 28, 2019. The primary outcome was the overall and treatment specific pooled incidence of poststroke seizures (PSS) following acute reperfusion therapy. We also computed the pooled incidence of early poststroke seizures and late poststroke seizures separately for all studies. We derived the risk of PSS associated with IVT in the pooled cohort of patients who received only IVT. The small number of studies (<3) that reported on the risk of PSS associated with mechanical thrombectomy alone or in combination with IVT did not allow us to compute an estimate of the risk of seizures associated with this therapy. We identified 13 753 patients with stroke, of which 592 had seizures. The pooled incidence of PSS was 5.9 % (95% CI, 4.2%-8.2%). PSS incidence rates among patients with stroke treated with IVT, mechanical thrombectomy, and both were respectively 6.1% (95% CI, 3.6%-10.2%), 5.9% (95% CI, 4.1%-8.4%), and 5.8 % (95% CI, 3.0%-10.9%). The incidence of late PSS was 6.7% (95% CI, 4.01%-11.02%) and that of early PSS was 3.14% (95% CI, 2.05%-4.76%). The pooled odds ratio for the association between IVT and PSS was 1.24 (95% CI, 0.75-2.05). The findings of this meta-analysis suggest that about one in 15 ischemic stroke patients treated with IVT, mechanical thrombectomy, or both develop seizures independently of the specific reperfusion treatment that they received.

Trends in Endovascular Reperfusion Therapy for Acute Stroke after Introduction of Mechanical Thrombectomy Devices: Japanese Registry of NeuroEndovascular Therapy (JR-NET)3.

In Japan, the era of thrombectomy for acute stroke started when the Merci retriever was approved in 2010 and the Penumbra system in 2011. New-generation Penumbra catheters (MAX series) and stent retrievers were introduced in 2013 and 2014, respectively. The aim of this study was to clarify the general status and trends in endovascular reperfusion therapy for stroke in Japan from 2010 to 2014. We extracted a total of 3705 patients (72.1 ± 12.2 years, 1482 women) from a nationwide study of patients receiving any neuroendovascular treatment, the Japanese Registry of NeuroEndovascular Therapy 3. Reperfusion therapy resulted in a successful reperfusion rate of 59%, and 31% of patients achieved a favorable outcome at 30 days of onset. The frequency of Merci-including procedures increased to 52% in the first half of 2011, but conversely decreased to 1% in the second half of 2014. The frequency of Penumbra-including procedures increased from 18% in the second half of 2011 to 67% in the first half of 2014, decreasing to 38% in the second half of 2014. The reperfusion rate and 30-day clinical outcomes remained almost unchanged until June 2013, and started to improve thereafter, coincident with the introduction and spread of newer-generation devices. The rate of successful reperfusion reached 71–76%, and 36–38% of patients achieved a favorable outcome in 2014. After multivariate adjustment for preprocedure variables, the calendar period from 2013 to 2014 was significantly associated with improvement in reperfusion rates and clinical outcomes.

‘Prehospital’ delay in acute stroke reperfusion therapy in Delhi: Time for introspection

The reasons for prehospital delay in acute stroke reperfusion care are many including delay in seeking medical care or delay after the Initial Medical Contact (IMC). We tried to find out the timing of IMC of patients coming to AIIMS Delhi Emergency Stroke Services. The data was collected prospectively (July10, 2018-Mar10, 2019) from the feasibility screening log of an on-going RCT (PROLEVIS).All Stroke patients admitted in Unit 2 were included. Time of onset of stroke, neuroimaging, arrival time at IMC/AIIMS were collected prospectively. We screened 127patients and 3 were excluded for insufficient data. Forty nine patients arrived AIIMS directly and 75 patients had IMC elsewhere. Of these 75 patients (Ischemic stroke-35, ICH-32, CVT-8), 61 (IS-27) reached within 4.5 hrs, 65 (IS-30 )within 6 hrs, 72 within 24 hrs. Of the 30 ischemic stroke patients (IMC < 6 hrs),29 (39%) had neuroimaging before referral, but only 2 patients were thrombolysed (AIIMS). Among the IS with IMC outside AIIMS, 13 patients were wake up stroke (11 patients are within 4.5 hrs). Out of 49 patients (IS-40, ICH-9) who directly reached AIIMS, 34 were within 4.5 hrs (IS-26), within 6 hrs-37 (IS-28), within 24 hrs -47 (IS-38). Eight patients within 4.5 hrs were wake up stroke. 35% (14/40, IVT-10, MT-4) of Ischemic stroke patients reaching AIIMS directly underwent acute stroke reperfusion therapy. Nearly half of (46%) Ischemic stroke patients reaching AIIMS have IMC outside and 77.1% of these reach IMC within 4.5 hrs.

Current Status of Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy

Current Status of Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy

An Updated Review of Imaging Selection for Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy

An Updated Review of Imaging Selection for Acute Stroke Reperfusion Therapy

Abstract WMP13: The Prediction of the Hemorrhagic Transformation Locations After Reperfusion Therapy in Acute Stroke Patients: A Magnetic Resonance Perfusion Study Using Deep Learning

Objective: Hemorrhagic transformation (HT) is a major complication of reperfusion therapy in acute stroke. We aim to explore the feasibility of HT location prediction from baseline magnetic resonance perfusion (MRP) source images. Methods: Consecutive acute ischemic stroke patients who had HT after reperfusion therapy (IV tPA and/or endovascular thrombectomy) were reviewed from two stroke centers. Patients with MRP and diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) before and 24h after treatment and follow-up susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) were included. The HT was depicted on follow-up SWI semi-automatically. The DWI lesions and HT were classified into 12 cerebral vascular territories (Fig 1A). Then a total of 80,000 tissue-voxels were extracted from both HT region and non-HT region randomly with the ratio of 1:1. Each voxel included a set of values of MRP source image and baseline DWI. Convolutional neural networks (CNN) were trained with 3-fold cross-validation. Prediction maps were generated from the CNN for each patient. The prevalence of HT after infarction and the sensitivity and specificity of HT prediction in each vascular territory were calculated. Results: Seventy-seven HT patients were analyzed (40 male, age 73 ±14 years, median baseline NIHSS score 14 [IQR 8-19], median onset-to-treatment time 242 min [IQR 152-355], median modified Rankin score 3 [IQR 1-4], 28 with Parenchymal hematoma). HT occurred most frequently in the territory of middle cerebral artery superficial branches (67.5%) and basal ganglia (37.6%), and least frequently in brain stem or thalamus (3.9%). HT was not evenly distributed throughout the vascular territories (Fig 1A). The best model was a locally-connected CNN (area under curve of 0.88). The average sensitivity and specificity for HT location prediction in anterior circulation were 89% and 60% (Fig 1BC). Conclusion: The CNN trained from DWI and MRP source images could predict the HT locations in acute ischemic stroke patients.

Comment: Capacity, consent, and country in acute stroke research.

As a general principle, any research involving humans requires voluntary participation based on informed consent.1 This also applies to enrollment in clinical trials und usually requires participants to give written informed consent after having received detailed information about potential benefits and risks as well as alternative treatment options, and after having had adequate time for consideration. Trials in acute stroke, however, present several challenges to this approach. Reperfusion therapies in acute stroke show a clear time-dependent effect, being more effective the earlier treatment is started, or reperfusion achieved.2,3 Both routine care and clinical trials in acute stroke are carried out under pressure of time. Thus, time available for consideration is very short. In addition, the brain injury commonly compromises language function, awareness of neurologic deficits, conscious level, and physical abilities, including vision and writing, relevant to the usual consent process. Since most stroke patients lack capacity to provide consent,4,5 alternative approaches are needed,6,7 and the bias introduced by systematic exclusion of certain subgroups of stroke patients, e.g., those with aphasia, has been reviewed critically.8

O3-2-4 - Breakthrough of modern reperfusion therapies for acute stroke in Lithuania: The importance of integrated government support and national stroke care network

O3-2-4 - Breakthrough of modern reperfusion therapies for acute stroke in Lithuania: The importance of integrated government support and national stroke care network

Treatment patterns and short-term outcomes in ischemic stroke in pregnancy or postpartum period

Stroke, which is a rare but devastating event during pregnancy, occurs in 34 of every 100,000 deliveries; obstetricians are often the first providers to be contacted by symptomatic patients. At least one-half of pregnancy-related strokes are likely to be of the ischemic stroke subtype. Most pregnant or newly postpartum women with ischemic stroke do not receive acute stroke reperfusion therapy, although this is the recommended treatment for adults. Little is known about these therapies in pregnant or postpartum women because pregnancy has been an exclusion criterion for all reperfusion trials. Until recently, pregnancy and obstetric delivery were specifically identified as warnings to intravenous alteplase tissue plasminogen activator in Federal Drug Administration labeling. The primary study objective was to compare the characteristics and outcomes of pregnant or postpartum vs nonpregnant women with ischemic stroke who received acute reperfusion therapy. Pregnant or postpartum (<6 weeks; n= 338) and nonpregnant (n= 24,303) women 18-44 years old with ischemic stroke from 1991 hospitals that participated in the American Heart Association's Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Registry from 2008-2013 were identified by medical history or International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, codes. Acute stroke reperfusion therapy was defined as intravenous tissue plasminogen activator, catheter-based thrombolysis, or thrombectomy or any combination thereof. A sensitivity analysis was done on patients who received intravenous tissue plasminogen activator monotherapy only. Chi-square tests were used for categoric variables, and Wilcoxon Rank-Sum was used for continuous variables. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess the association of pregnancy with short-term outcomes. Baseline characteristics of the pregnant or postpartum vs nonpregnant women with ischemic stroke revealed a younger group who, despite greater stroke severity, were less likely to have a history of hypertension or to arrive via emergency medical services. There were similar rates of acute stroke reperfusion therapy in the pregnant or postpartum vs nonpregnant women (11.8% vs 10.5%; P= .42). Pregnant or postpartum women were less likely to receive intravenous tissue plasminogen activator monotherapy (4.4% vs 7.9%; P= .03), primarily because of pregnancy and recent surgery. There was a trend toward increased symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage in the pregnant or postpartum patients who were treated with tissue plasminogen activator, yet no cases of major systemic bleeding or in-hospital death occurred, and there were similar rates of discharge to home. Data on the timing of pregnancy, which were available in 145 of 338 cases, showed that 44.8% of pregnancy-related strokes were antepartum, that 2.8% occurred during delivery, and that 52.4% were during the postpartum period. Using data from the Get With the Guidelines-Stroke Registry to assemble the largest cohort of pregnant or postpartum ischemic stroke patients who had been treated with reperfusion therapy, we observed that pregnant or postpartum women had similarly favorable short-term outcomes and equal rates of total reperfusion therapy to nonpregnant women, despite lower rates of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator use. Future studies should identify the characteristics of pregnant and postpartum ischemic stroke patients who are most likely to safely benefit from reperfusion therapy.