Reply: Septic cerebral emboli as a risk factor for thrombolysis-related haemorrhagic transformation

We appreciate the opportunity to respond to Dr. Jolobe ’s letter titled ‘Septic cerebral emboli as a risk factor for thrombolysis-related hemorrhagic transformation’. Dr. Jolobe made a nice comment on our article titled ‘Risk factors of hemorrhagic transformation after intravenous thrombolysis with rt-PA in acute cerebral infarction’.1 We agree that septic cerebral emboli was a risk factor for thrombolysis-related hemorrhagic transformation as demonstrated in an early study.2 In fact, it was based on this early study and the following studies that intravenous thrombolysis is not recommended for patients with acute ischemic stroke and infective endocarditis because of the increased risk of intracranial hemorrhage.3 Therefore, in this study we excluded patients with acute ischemic stroke and infective endocarditis from the enrolled subjects and did not analyse septic cerebral emboli as the risk factor.
Source: QJM - Category: Internal Medicine Source Type: research