BACKGROUND: American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines recommend initiating treatment with IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute ischemic stroke patients without suspected coagulopathy prior to availability of clotting results; however, little or no data support this practice. We sought to identify how often blood clotting abnormalities were responsible for withholding IV tPA at our institution. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of our prospectively acquired Get With the Guidelines Stroke database from January 2003 to April 2008. All patients underwent clinical evaluation by a neurologist, diagnostic neuroimaging, and laboratory testing on admission. We classified patients with absolute contraindications to IV tPA as ineligible, and those with warnings/relative contraindications or potentially treatable factors as potentially eligible. RESULTS: Of 2,335 considered for analysis, 470 (20.1%) patients presented to our emergency department (ED) within 3 hours. Among these, 147 (31.3%) received IV tPA in our ED, 102 (21.7%) had an absolute contraindication, and 221 (47%) had a reason to consider withholding tPA. Only 30/470 (6.4%) of potential thrombolysis patients were discovered to have international normalized ratio > or =1.7 or platelets < or =100,000/microL, and of these, 28 were suspected a priori due to known coagulopathy from medication or illness. Only 2/470 (0.4%) patients had an unsuspected coagulopathy that ultimately prevented thrombolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the experience of a large thrombolysis referral center, stroke patients without suspected clotting abnormality can safely begin thrombolytic therapy before clotting results are available. These data support the current practice guidelines, and may reassure clinicians that the benefits of early administration greatly outweigh the risks due to an unsuspected bleeding diathesis.
BACKGROUND: American Heart Association/American Stroke Association guidelines recommend initiating treatment with IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) in acute ischemic strokepatients without suspected coagulopathy prior to availability of clotting results; however, little or no data support this practice. We sought to identify how often blood clotting abnormalities were responsible for withholding IV tPA at our institution. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective review of our prospectively acquired Get With the Guidelines Stroke database from January 2003 to April 2008. All patients underwent clinical evaluation by a neurologist, diagnostic neuroimaging, and laboratory testing on admission. We classified patients with absolute contraindications to IV tPA as ineligible, and those with warnings/relative contraindications or potentially treatable factors as potentially eligible. RESULTS: Of 2,335 considered for analysis, 470 (20.1%) patients presented to our emergency department (ED) within 3 hours. Among these, 147 (31.3%) received IV tPA in our ED, 102 (21.7%) had an absolute contraindication, and 221 (47%) had a reason to consider withholding tPA. Only 30/470 (6.4%) of potential thrombolysis patients were discovered to have international normalized ratio > or =1.7 or platelets < or =100,000/microL, and of these, 28 were suspected a priori due to known coagulopathy from medication or illness. Only 2/470 (0.4%) patients had an unsuspected coagulopathy that ultimately prevented thrombolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the experience of a large thrombolysis referral center, strokepatients without suspected clotting abnormality can safely begin thrombolytic therapy before clotting results are available. These data support the current practice guidelines, and may reassure clinicians that the benefits of early administration greatly outweigh the risks due to an unsuspected bleeding diathesis.
Authors: I L Katzan; A J Furlan; L E Lloyd; J I Frank; D L Harper; J A Hinchey; J P Hammel; A Qu; C A Sila Journal: JAMA Date: 2000-03-01 Impact factor: 56.272
Authors: J R Marler; B C Tilley; M Lu; T G Brott; P C Lyden; J C Grotta; J P Broderick; S R Levine; M P Frankel; S H Horowitz; E C Haley; C A Lewandowski; T P Kwiatkowski Journal: Neurology Date: 2000-12-12 Impact factor: 9.910
Authors: Nils Wahlgren; Niaz Ahmed; Niclas Eriksson; Franz Aichner; Erich Bluhmki; Antoni Dávalos; Terttu Erilä; Gary A Ford; Martin Grond; Werner Hacke; Michael G Hennerici; Markku Kaste; Martin Köhrmann; Vincent Larrue; Kennedy R Lees; Thomas Machnig; Risto O Roine; Danilo Toni; Geert Vanhooren Journal: Stroke Date: 2008-10-16 Impact factor: 7.914
Authors: Werner Hacke; Geoffrey Donnan; Cesare Fieschi; Markku Kaste; Rüdiger von Kummer; Joseph P Broderick; Thomas Brott; Michael Frankel; James C Grotta; E Clarke Haley; Thomas Kwiatkowski; Steven R Levine; Chris Lewandowski; Mei Lu; Patrick Lyden; John R Marler; Suresh Patel; Barbara C Tilley; Gregory Albers; Erich Bluhmki; Manfred Wilhelm; Scott Hamilton Journal: Lancet Date: 2004-03-06 Impact factor: 79.321
Authors: Natalia S Rost; Eric E Smith; Muhammad A Pervez; Philip Mello; Paul Dreyer; Lee H Schwamm Journal: Circ Cardiovasc Qual Outcomes Date: 2012-04-24
Authors: Eivind Berge; William Whiteley; Heinrich Audebert; Gian Marco De Marchis; Ana Catarina Fonseca; Chiara Padiglioni; Natalia Pérez de la Ossa; Daniel Strbian; Georgios Tsivgoulis; Guillaume Turc Journal: Eur Stroke J Date: 2021-02-19