ABSTRACT
Background: Intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) reduces disability in patients with ischemic stroke. However, its implementation in Chilean public general hospitals has been slow and faces some difficulties. Aim: To analyze the results of an intravenous thrombolysis protocol implementation in a public general hospital. Material and Methods: During a lapse of 28 months a standardized protocol for intravenous thrombolysis implemented in the emergency room of a public hospital, was prospectively evaluated. Fifty four patients with ischemic stroke were treated and assessed three months later as outpatients. Results: At three months of follow-up, 66.4% of patients subjected to thrombolysis had a favorable evolution, defined as having 0 to 1 points in the modified Rankin scale. Intracerebral hemorrhage rate was 11.1%, including 5.5% of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage. Four percent of patients had systemic bleeding complications after thrombolysis. The mortality rate was 14.8%. Conclusions: The success rates, mortality, and complications rate were comparable to the results obtained in international studies, despite of the absence of a stroke unit to manage stroke and its complications.
Subject(s)
Humans , Male , Female , Adult , Middle Aged , Aged , Plasminogen Activators/therapeutic use , Thrombolytic Therapy/methods , Brain Ischemia/drug therapy , Stroke/drug therapy , Fibrinolytic Agents/therapeutic use , Time Factors , Severity of Illness Index , Infusions, Intravenous , Brain/diagnostic imaging , Tomography, X-Ray Computed , Cerebral Hemorrhage/etiology , Cerebral Hemorrhage/prevention & control , Brain Ischemia/complications , Prospective Studies , Reproducibility of Results , Treatment Outcome , Disease Progression , Stroke/complications , Hospitals, PublicABSTRACT
The origin of 20% of ischemic strokes is a left ventricular thrombus. We report two patients with strokes originating from cardiac thrombi, treated in two different ways. A 42-year-old diabetic man admitted with a left parietal and occipital stroke. An echocardiogram showed a left ventricular thrombus. The patient was subjected to a surgical cardiac revascularization procedure and left ventricular thrombectomy. The postoperative evolution was uneventful and the patient was discharged on oral anticoagulation. On ambulatory follow up, no neurological deterioration was evidenced. A 38-year-old male admitted with an acute ischemic stroke, was subjected to thrombolysis with human plasminogen activator. An echocardiogram showed a left ventricular thrombus, considered the cause of the stroke. The patient was anticoagulated with heparin and discharged ten days after admission with oral anticoagulation. A new echocardiogram performed one month later, did not show the left ventricular thrombus.