March 25, 2010
Swedish Medical Center to Present Stroke Study at ASNR Meeting May 2010
Multimodal CT Scan Protocol Does Not Delay TPA Administration In the Emergency Room
Patients with an acute ischemic stroke require immediate medical treatment, with administration of IV tPA the paramount consideration. A CT scan to rule out hemorrhage or infarct is required before thrombolytic therapy. However, the addition of an intra- and extra-cranial vascular study as well as a brain perfusion study may be of benefit to help determine candidacy for intra-arterial therapies. Our acute stroke protocol includes a multimodal CT scan and is done routinely on acute stroke patients before receiving thrombolytic therapy.
The purpose of this study was to determine whether performing multimodal CT delays initiation of tPA beyond a goal of 60 minutes from hospital arrival. 124 acute stroke patients were reviewed over a year in 2008. After all variables were adjusted for, we found that the use of multimodal CT scan in acute stroke patients did not delay administration of tPA beyond a goal of 60 minutes from patient arrival.
Thus, we can safely continue our current practice of routinely using multimodal CT for acute stroke patients and be reassured that additional scanning is not delaying care.
Swedish Medical Center’s Christopher Fanale, M.D., is presenting this abstract for the American Society of Neuroradiology 48th Annual Meeting held May 17 through 20, 2010 at the Hynes Convention Center, Boston, MA.
