Stroke; a journal of cerebral circulation
-
The benefits of intravenous tissue-type plasminogen activator in acute ischemic stroke are time dependent, and several strategies have been reported to be associated with more rapid door-to-needle (DTN) times. However, the extent to which hospitals are using these strategies and their association with DTN times have not been well studied. ⋯ Although the majority of participating hospitals reported using some strategy to reduce delays in tissue-type plasminogen activator administration for acute ischemic stroke, the strategies applied vary considerably and those most strongly associated with shorter DTN times were applied relatively less frequently.
-
Comparative Study
Comparison of magnetic resonance imaging mismatch criteria to select patients for endovascular stroke therapy.
The Diffusion and Perfusion Imaging Evaluation for Understanding Stroke Evolution 2 (DEFUSE 2) study has shown that clinical response to endovascular reperfusion differs between patients with and without perfusion-diffusion (perfusion-weighted imaging-diffusion-weighted imaging, PWI-DWI) mismatch: patients with mismatch have a favorable clinical response to reperfusion, whereas patients without mismatch do not. This study examined whether alternative mismatch criteria can also differentiate patients according to their response to reperfusion. ⋯ The MRA-DWI mismatch is a promising alternative to DEFUSE 2's PWI-DWI mismatch for patient selection in endovascular stroke trials.
-
Clinical Trial
Incident stroke is associated with common carotid artery diameter and not common carotid artery intima-media thickness.
The common carotid artery interadventitial diameter is measured on ultrasound images as the distance between the media-adventitia interfaces of the near and far walls. It is associated with common carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and left ventricular mass and might therefore also have an association with incident stroke. ⋯ http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00063440.
-
Optimizing prehospital stroke care is important because effective treatments for acute stroke require a narrow therapeutic time window. We developed a smartphone-assisted prehospital medical information system (SPMIS) to facilitate research on prehospital stroke care. ⋯ SPMIS enabled us to analyze the prehospital information of patients with stroke in a short time with little effort. More large-scale studies on prehospital stroke care will become feasible using SPMIS, which may lead to advances in stroke treatment.
-
The risk of stroke and death in patients with atrial fibrillation is strongly associated with age and concomitant comorbidities. The aim of this study was to examine the age dependence of risk factors for stroke and mortality in young patients with atrial fibrillation. ⋯ The CHA2DS2-VASc score is an applicable tool for all age groups and in nonvalvular atrial fibrillation patients<65 years old, the same risk factors apply.