BALTIMORE – Going to the hospital soon after the development of symptoms of acute ischemic stroke may not guarantee quick treatment.
A study of 1,865 patients treated within the past decade at a large urban comprehensive stroke center has revealed delayed treatment with tissue plasminogen activator, compared with patients who came to the emergency room hours after symptom development, Dr. Kyle C. Rossi said at the annual meeting of the American Neurological Association.
Dr. Kyle Rossi
Treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) within 3 hours after the first symptoms of acute ischemic stroke definitely improves long-term outcomes, but meeting this target time remains a challenge. Patients who present to the emergency room soon after symptom development would seemingly have an advantage, yet Dr. Rossi’s preliminary scrutiny of patient records at Mount Sinai raised doubts about this and prompted the present study.
The hypothesis was that cases with a shorter time between symptom development and diagnosis of stroke (last known well-to-stroke code time, or LKW-to-code) will have a longer time between diagnosis and tPA administration (code-to-tPA), “possibly due to the perception on the part of evaluating physicians of sufficient remaining time before the end of the tPA window.”
The researchers examined patient records from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s “Get with the Guidelines” stroke program, a voluntary observational registry for patients with acute stroke. Of the 1,865 ischemic stroke patients treated during 2009-2015, 122 who received intravenous tPA were allocated to three LKW-to-code groups: within an hour (38 patients), within the next hour (49 patients), or 2 hours or more (35 patients).
The patients tended to be in their late 60s. Just over half were female, and about 40% were white.
Overall, the average LKW-to-code time was 91 ± 48 minutes and the average code-to-tPA time was 67 ± 26 minutes.
Average code-to-tPA times were 80, 67, and 52 minutes, respectively, for the three groups (P less than .0001). On average, it took 28 minutes longer to give tPA to patients who presented within an hour than to patients presenting 2 hours or longer after their first stroke symptom. There was an increase in code-to-tPA time of 1 minute for every decrease in LKW-to-code time of 4 minutes (P less than .0001).
The delay in the time to treat patients who arrive sooner after development of stroke symptoms may result from a decision made by the evaluating neurologist to conduct additional testing prior to administering tPA. Sometimes other staff may be unaware of the decision to delay treatment, according to Dr. Rossi and his colleagues.
“Absolutely, folks coming in soon after symptoms develop should be treated early. But treatment needs to balance rapid delivery with adequate testing. Sometimes, when there is some time to spare before the optimum treatment window closes we can do a more thorough examination and address lingering questions,” Dr. Rossi said.
The decision to get more information about the patient’s condition reflects the goal to give tPA as soon as safely possible to the right patients. While laudable, the study highlights that the timing of treatment can be improved.
Dr. Rossi reported having no financial disclosures.