This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.
Abstract
Objective To determine whether young adults (≤40 years old) with acute ischemic stroke are less likely to receive IV tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) and more likely to have longer times to brain imaging and treatment.
Methods We analyzed data from the Get With The Guidelines–Stroke registry for patients with acute ischemic stroke hospitalized between January 2009 and September 2015. We used multivariable models with generalized estimating equations to evaluate tPA treatment and outcomes between younger (age 18–40 years) and older (age >40 years) patients with acute ischemic stroke.
Results Of 1,320,965 patients with acute ischemic stroke admitted to 1,983 hospitals, 2.3% (30,448) were 18 to 40 years of age. Among these patients, 12.5% received tPA vs 8.8% of those >40 years of age (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 1.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.56–1.71). However, younger patients were less likely to receive brain imaging within 25 minutes (62.5% vs 71.5%, aOR 0.78, 95% CI 0.73–0.84) and to be treated with tPA within 60 minutes of hospital arrival (37.0% vs 42.8%, aOR 0.74, 95% CI 0.68–0.79). Compared to older patients, younger patients treated with tPA had a lower symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage rate (1.7% vs 4.5%, aOR 0.55, 95% CI 0.42–0.72) and lower in-hospital mortality (2.0% vs 4.3%, aOR 0.65, 95% CI 0.52–0.81).
Conclusions In contrast to our hypothesis, younger patients with acute ischemic stroke were more likely to be treated with tPA than older patients, but they were more likely to experience delay in evaluation and treatment. Compared with older patients, younger patients had better outcomes, including fewer intracranial hemorrhages.
Glossary
- AHA=
- American Heart Association;
- aOR=
- adjusted odds ratio;
- ASA=
- American Stroke Association;
- CI=
- confidence interval;
- GWTG–Stroke=
- Get With The Guidelines–Stroke;
- ICH=
- intracranial hemorrhage;
- IQR=
- interquartile range;
- IST-3=
- International Stroke Trial 3;
- sICH=
- symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage;
- SITS-ISTR=
- Safe Implementation of Thrombolysis in Stroke–International Stroke Thrombolysis Register;
- tPA=
- tissue plasminogen activator
Footnotes
Go to Neurology.org/N for full disclosures. Funding information and disclosures deemed relevant by the authors, if any, are provided at the end of the article.
Editorial, page 1129
CME Course: NPub.org/cmelist
- Received July 14, 2018.
- Accepted in final form February 8, 2019.
- © 2019 American Academy of Neurology
AAN Members
We have changed the login procedure to improve access between AAN.com and the Neurology journals. If you are experiencing issues, please log out of AAN.com and clear history and cookies. (For instructions by browser, please click the instruction pages below). After clearing, choose preferred Journal and select login for AAN Members. You will be redirected to a login page where you can log in with your AAN ID number and password. When you are returned to the Journal, your name should appear at the top right of the page.
AAN Non-Member Subscribers
Purchase access
Letters: Rapid online correspondence
REQUIREMENTS
You must ensure that your Disclosures have been updated within the previous six months. Please go to our Submission Site to add or update your Disclosure information.
Your co-authors must send a completed Publishing Agreement Form to Neurology Staff (not necessary for the lead/corresponding author as the form below will suffice) before you upload your comment.
If you are responding to a comment that was written about an article you originally authored:
You (and co-authors) do not need to fill out forms or check disclosures as author forms are still valid
and apply to letter.
Submission specifications:
- Submissions must be < 200 words with < 5 references. Reference 1 must be the article on which you are commenting.
- Submissions should not have more than 5 authors. (Exception: original author replies can include all original authors of the article)
- Submit only on articles published within 6 months of issue date.
- Do not be redundant. Read any comments already posted on the article prior to submission.
- Submitted comments are subject to editing and editor review prior to posting.
