European journal of neurology : the official journal of the European Federation of Neurological Societies
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Multicenter Study
Intravenous thrombolytic therapy in patients with stroke mimics: baseline characteristics and safety profile.
The decision to treat with intravenous (i.v.) rt-PA a patient with acute cerebral ischaemia is based on clinical and imaging criteria recorded in emergency. In such an emergency situation stroke mimics may sometimes be misdiagnosed, and lead to an erroneous prescription of rtPA. The objective of this study was to determine the baseline profile and the outcome in patients with stroke mimics who received i.v. rtPA. ⋯ Patients with stroke mimics have a good safety profile when treated with rt-PA. In case of doubt, physicians should not postpone thrombolysis, because its potential benefit in confirmed ischaemic stroke might be higher than the risk of complications in stroke mimics. A combined analysis of such small series of cases would be useful to have a better delineation of the clinical profile of these patients.