ICU Interventions in Ischemic Stroke Patients Treated Using Liberalized IV-tPA Criteria

Background and Objective: Current standard practice guidelines recommend ICU admission for ischemic stroke patients treated with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (IV-tPA). More recently, the trend in stroke care is to broaden eligibility for IV thrombolysis. Two examples are a more liberal inclusion criteria known as SMART criteria (sIV-tPA), and the transfer of patients to comprehensive stroke centers (CSC). The present study characterizes ICU interventions in these patients. Understanding which stroke patients that require ICU-level care may allow for placement of patients in the appropriate level of care at hospital admission.

Source: Journal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases - July 2, 2019 Category: Neurology Authors: Nick M. Murray, Michael Ke, Alan Yee, Charlene Chen, Christine Wong, Ann Bedenk, Julia Fernandes, Nobl Barazangi, David Tong Source Type: research