title: Low-dose tissue plasminogen activator is as effective as standard tissue plasminogen activator administration for the treatment of acute ischemic stroke.
abstract: We compared the efficacy of intravenous (IV) combination of low-dose tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and urokinase (UK) versus either classical IV tPA or UK alone for acute ischemic stroke (AIS) within 4.5 h of symptom onset. One-hundred fifty-three AIS patients were treated with 1 of 3 different IV thrombolytic therapies within a 4.5-h time window. Clinical data included age, gender, type of therapy, NIHSS score, time from onset to needle, ASPECTS, mRS at 90 days, and medical history. The outcomes were ΔNIHSS-a (the difference between NIHSS scores at admission and 24 h); ΔNIHSS-b (difference between NIHSS scores at admission and 7 days), and mRS at 90 days. Multivariate logistic regression (MLR) was used to determine if treatments or other variables could predict these outcomes. Of 153 patients, 60.1% had a good outcome and 39.9% had a poor outcome. The most important predictors of 90-day mRS were AF history (p < 0.001) and NIHSS score at admission (p = 0.001). Age (p = 0.004) and treatment type (p = 0.043) that were also significantly associated with 90-day mRS. IV tPA yielded the best outcome, compared to low-dose tPA/UK (OR = 1.17) and UK alone (OR = 1.42). Low-dose tPA/UK also resulted in better outcome than UK alone did (OR = 1.12). We conclude that low-dose IV tPA with UK administered within a 4.5-h time window was effective and likely comparable to classical IV tPA thrombolysis.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Guangming
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Professor of Neurology, Department of Neurology, Military General Hospital of Beijing PLA, 5 Nanmencang, Dongsi, Beijing 100700, China. zhangvivian@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Weiwei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004305:Dose-Response Relationship, Drug; D005260:Female; D005343:Fibrinolytic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D020521:Stroke / Q000188:drug therapy*; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D005343:Fibrinolytic Agents; D010959:Tissue Plasminogen Activator