• Ming-Ju Hsieh, Sung-Chun Tang, Wen-Chu Chiang, Kuang-Yu Huang, Anna Marie Chang, Patrick Chow-In Ko, Li-Kai Tsai, Jiann-Shing Jeng, and Matthew Huei-Ming Ma.
• Department of Emergency Medicine, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
• J Formos Med Assoc. 2014 Nov 1;113(11):813-9.

Background/PurposeTo determine whether utilization of emergency medical service (EMS) can increase use and expedite delivery of the thrombolytic therapy in acute ischemic stroke patients.MethodsWe analyzed consecutive patients presenting to the emergency department (ED) with an ischemic stroke within 72 hours of symptom onset from a prospective stroke registry. Variables associated with early ED arrival (within 3 hours of stroke onset) and administration of intravenous thrombolytic therapy were analyzed.ResultsFrom January 1, 2010 to July 31, 2011, there were 1081 patients (62.3% men, age 69.6 ± 13 years) included in this study. Among them, 289 (26.7%) arrived in the ED within 3 hours, and 88 (8.1%) received thrombolytic therapy. Patients who arrived at the ED by EMS (n = 279, 25.8%) were independently associated with earlier ED arrival (adjusted odds ratio = 3.68, 95% confidence interval = 2.54-5.33), and higher chance of receiving thrombolytic therapy (adjusted odds ratio = 3.89, 95% confidence interval = 1.86-8.17). Furthermore, utilization of EMS significantly decreased onset-to-needle time by 26 minutes in patients receiving thrombolytic therapy.ConclusionUtilization of EMS can not only help acute ischemic stroke patients in early presentation to ED, but also effectively facilitate thrombolytic therapy and shorten the onset-to-needle time.Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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