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Why Are Stroke Patients Excluded from TPA Therapy?
Neurol 56:1015-1020, Barber,P.A.,et al, 2001
See this aricle in Pubmed

Article Abstract
Of 2165 stroke patients presenting to the university hospital, 1168 (53.9%) were diagnosed with ischemic stroke, 31.8% with intracranial hemorrhage (intracerebral, subarachnoid, or subdural), and 13.9% with TIA. Delay in presentation to eme rgency department beyond 3 hours of symptom onset excluded 73.1% (854/1168). Major reasons for delay included uncertain time of onset (24.2%), patients waited to see if symptoms would improve (29%), delay caused by transfer from an outlying hospital (8.9 %), and inaccessibility of treating hospital (5.7%). Twenty-seven percent of patients with ischemic stroke (314/1168) were admitted within 3 hours of symptom onset and of these 84 (26.7%) patients received IV TPA. The major reasons for exclusion in this group of patients (>3 hours) were mild stroke (13.1%), clinical improvement (18.2%), perceived protocol exclusions (13.6%), emergency department referral delay (8.9%), and significant comorbidity (8.3%). Of those patients who were considered too mild or were documented to have had significant improvement, 32% either remained dependent at hospital discharge or died during hospital admission. Throughout the region there was a total of 1806 ischemic stroke patients (admitted to all four Calgary hospitals) . During this study period, 4.7% received IV TPA. The majority of patients are unable to receive TPA for acute ischemic stroke because they do not reach the hospital soon enough. Of those patients presenting within 3 hours, 27% received the therapy but a further 31% were excluded because their symptoms were either considered too mild or were rapidly improving. Subsequently, a third of these patients were left either dependent or dead, bringing into question the initial decision not to treat.
 
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fibrinolytic agents,contraindications
NIH stroke scale
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