NEW ORLEANS—Thrombolysis did not affect the functional outcome of patients with ischemic stroke who presented without vascular occlusion, according to research reported at the 64th Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Neurology. The treatment did not affect these patients’ NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores, but entailed a risk of intracerebral bleeding.
Retrospectively Comparing Outcomes Patients may present without vascular occlusion when the embolus disintegrates spontaneously or when they have lacunar stroke. To determine whether thrombolysis is beneficial in these instances, Sourabh Lahoti, MBBS, clinical research assistant at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and colleagues retrospectively analyzed medical records of patients with ischemic stroke and no imaging evidence of vascular occlusion. All patients had been treated at the medical center during the previous five years. The investigators divided the patients into a group that received thrombolysis and a group that did not. Based on infarct size and location, the investigators further categorized the patients as having had spontaneous recanalization of emboli or lacunar stroke.
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