Deans' stroke musings: Intravenous tPA (Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator) Correlates With Favorable Venous Outflow Profiles in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Thursday, June 30, 2022

Intravenous tPA (Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator) Correlates With Favorable Venous Outflow Profiles in Acute Ischemic Stroke

If you're not measuring recovery you're doing fucking useless research. Venous outflow is some intermediate step.

“What's measured, improves.” So said management legend and author Peter F. Drucker

Intravenous tPA (Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator) Correlates With Favorable Venous Outflow Profiles in Acute Ischemic Stroke

Gabriella M. Kuraitis

Originally published23 Jun 2022https://doi.org/10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.038560Stroke. 2022;0:10.1161/STROKEAHA.122.038560

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Intravenous tPA (tissue-type plasminogen activator) is often administered before endovascular thrombectomy (EVT). Recent studies have questioned whether tPA is necessary given the high rates of arterial recanalization achieved by EVT, but whether tPA impacts venous outflow (VO) is unknown. We investigated whether tPA improves VO profiles on baseline computed tomography (CT) angiography (CTA) images before EVT.

METHODS:

Retrospective multicenter cohort study of patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion undergoing EVT triage. Included patients underwent CT, CTA, and CT perfusion before EVT. VO profiles were determined by opacification of the vein of Labbé, sphenoparietal sinus, and superficial middle cerebral vein on CTA as 0, not visible; 1, moderate opacification; and 2, full. Pial arterial collaterals were graded on CTA, and tissue-level collaterals were assessed on CT perfusion using the hypoperfusion intensity ratio. Clinical and demographic data were determined from the electronic medical record. Using multivariable regression analysis, we determined the correlation between tPA administration and favorable VO profiles.

RESULTS:

Seven hundred seventeen patients met inclusion criteria. Three hundred sixty-five patients received tPA (tPA+), while 352 patients were not treated with tPA (tPA−). Fewer tPA+ patients had atrial fibrillation (n=128 [35%] versus n=156 [44%]; P=0.012) and anticoagulants/antiplatelet treatment before acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion onset (n=130 [36%] versus n=178 [52%]; P<0.001) compared with tPA− patients. One hundred eighty-five patients (51%) in the tPA+ and 100 patients (28%) in the tPA− group exhibited favorable VO (P<0.001). Multivariable regression analysis showed that tPA administration was a strong independent predictor of favorable VO profiles (OR, 2.6 [95% CI, 1.7–4.0]; P<0.001) after control for favorable pial arterial CTA collaterals, favorable tissue-level collaterals on CT perfusion, age, presentation National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, antiplatelet/anticoagulant treatment, history of atrial fibrillation and time from symptom onset to imaging.

CONCLUSIONS:

In patients with acute ischemic stroke due to large vessel occlusion undergoing thrombectomy triage, tPA administration was strongly associated with the presence of favorable VO profiles.