Do efforts to decrease door-to-needle time risk increasing stroke mimic treatment rates?

Ava L. Liberman, Eric M. Liotta, Fan Z. Caprio, Ilana Ruff, Matthew B. Maas, Richard A. Bernstein, Rahul Khare, Deborah Bergman, Shyam Prabhakaran

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

Summary An unintended consequence of rapid thrombolysis may be more frequent treatment of stroke mimics, nonvascular conditions that simulate stroke. We explored the relationship between door-to-needle (DTN) times and thrombolysis of stroke mimics at a single academic center by analyzing consecutive quartiles of patients who were treated with IV tissue plasminogen activator for suspected stroke from January 1, 2010 to February 28, 2014. An increase in the proportion of stroke mimic patients (6.7% in each of the 1st and 2nd, 12.9% in the 3rd, and 30% in the last consecutive case quartile; p 0.03) and a decrease in median DTN time from 89 to 56 minutes (p < 0.01) was found. As more centers reduce DTN times, the rates of stroke mimic treatment should be carefully monitored.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)247-252
Number of pages6
JournalNeurology: Clinical Practice
Volume5
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 10 2015
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology

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