Treatment for major acute ischemic stroke

Specific treatments for major acute ischemic stroke... 

O Connor RE, McGraw P, Edelsohn L. Thrombolytic therapy for acute ischemic stroke why the majority of patients remain ineligible for treatment. Ann Emerg Med 1999 33 9-14. 

Stroke is the leading cause of major long-term disability in adults and the third leading cause of death in the United States. On average, a new stroke occurs every 45 seconds. Thrombolytic therapy with intravenous recombinant tissue-plasminogen activator (IV rt-PA) is the most effective treatment for acute ischemic stroke. In this chapter, we review the rationale for thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke, clinical evidence supporting the use of thrombolytics, and the application of thrombolysis in practice. 

The authors concluded that campaigns to educate patients to seek treatment sooner should be major components of system-wide interventions to increase the rate of thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. There is some evidence that public education may help to increase the rate of rt-PA utilization by encouraging earlier presentation when stroke symptoms occur. ... 

No direct comparison trials have been reported between the different thrombolytic agents in acute ischemic stroke. In a retrospective review of the results for acute stroke lAT performed at our center, we have found significantly higher rates of recanalization and good clinical outcome in the era in which lA UK was used versus the era in which UK was not available and lAT with rt-PA was the primary treatment. Conversely, in another retrospective study, Eckert et al. found no major difference between the recanalization rates of UK and rt-PA. 

Acute ischemic stroke is treatable, and our ability to treat patients with ischemic stroke continues to improve. Since the publication of the first edition of this book, important changes in stroke patient management have occurred, and many are reflected in these pages. Perhaps the most important has been the widening of the time window for both intravenous thrombolysis as well as endovascular arterial recanalization treatments. This change in the expansion of the time window has major implications because it could dramatically increase the number of potential patients for treatment. Further expansion of the time window is possible with the likelihood that imaging will provide the necessary information for identifying suitable, individual patients. 

OR 1.81, 95% Cl 1.46-2.24), most of which were related to symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (OR 3.37, 95% Cl 2.68. 22). In addition, a pooled analysis of six major randomized placebo-controlled IV rt-PA stroke trials (Alteplase Thrombolysis for Acute Noninterventional Therapy in Ischemic Stroke (ATLANTIS) I and II, European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS) I and II, and NINDS I and II), including 2775 patients who were treated with IV rt-PA or placebo within 360 minutes of stroke onset, confirmed the beneht up to 3 hours and suggested a potential beneht beyond 3 hours for some patients. The pattern of a decreasing chance of a favorable 3-month outcome as the time interval from stroke onset to start of treatment increased was consistent with the findings of the original NINDS study. ... 

The general treatments described in this chapter are applicable to all patients with acute major stroke regardless of etiology. Specific treatment for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke is discussed in Chs. 21 and 22, respectively. Therapy for acute stroke can be divided into ... 

The concept of the ischemic penumbra has proven to be an extremely valuable construct for both experimental studies of ischemic stroke and for the development of tools for the management of patients with this disorder. Indeed, a major driver in the development of treatments for ischemic stroke is the belief that in many acute stroke patients, there is a region of salvageable brain that is threatened with permanent injury. This region of brain corresponds to the ischemic penumbra originally described in experimental stroke studies. The clinical condition does not strictly meet the criteria as originally defined by experimentalists. Nonetheless, the concept is clinically valuable, and a suitable modification of its definition applicable to the clinical condition is appropriate. 

Antiplatelets are the mainstay of treatment for acute coronary syndrome (ACS), a spectrum of ischemic events that include myocardial infarction and unstable angina, with well-established benefit in preventing atherothrombosis. Results of a meta-analysis of 145 clinical studies reported a 25% reduction of atherothrombotic events in high-risk patients treated with antiplatelet therapy [12]. Another meta-analysis of 109 clinical trials has concluded that antiplatelet medications were able to reduce transient ischemic attacks and strokes by 22%, reduce coronary artery disease by 29%, and reduce peripheral artery disease by 23% [13]. Table 19.1 summarizes the major commercially available antiplatelet agents. 

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