title: Telemedicine versus face-to-face evaluation in the delivery of thrombolysis for acute ischaemic stroke: a single centre experience.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Telemedicine is increasingly used in the UK to deliver thrombolysis. It is primarily used to enable assessment of people presenting with an acute stroke by a remote specialist in stroke care, and to determine eligibility for thrombolysis with alteplase (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator). This study aims to evaluate the process of acute stroke care, safety and outcome profiles when comparing face-to-face evaluation and telemedicine in the delivery of thrombolysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a retrospective single centre cohort study, evaluating patients thrombolysed from July 2007 to December 2009 inclusive. All patients were given treatment within a 3-hour window from onset of symptoms. Of the 97 patients thrombolysed, 45 (46%) were evaluated by telemedicine. Process times of the steps taken to deliver thrombolysis for the two groups were compared. The authors include the rates of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage (SICH). Outcome data include 3-month mortality and functional status.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Process times were significantly better in face-to-face: Admission to CT (p=0.001), CT to treatment (p≤0.001) and admission to treatment (p≤0.001). SICH occurred in four patients (7.7%) in the face-to-face group compared with the two patients (4.4%) in the telemedicine group (p=0.7). Favourable outcome: a modified Rankin score of 0-2 was observed in 19 patients (36.5%) in the face-to-face group compared with 19 patients (42%) in the telemedicine group (p=0.9).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This analysis shows that the use of telemedicine compared with face-to-face evaluation is feasible in the delivery of thrombolysis during out of hours. There are several areas of our emergency process of hyper-acute stroke care that need improving when using telemedicine.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ageing & Health, Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, St Thomas' Hospital, London SE1 7EH, UK.
authors.forename: Muhibbur
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Birns
authors.forename: Anthony
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rudd
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhalla
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality; D017216:Telemedicine / Q000379:methods*; D015912:Thrombolytic Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D013997:Time Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome