Short-Term Outcome Assessment of Acute Ischemic Stroke After Intravenous Fibrinolytic Therapy: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: The disease burden of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is an important health issue in today's patient care. Urgent intravenous thrombolytic (UIT) therapy is one of the most popular treatments in these cases. Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the 1-month outcome of patients with AIS who received urgent intravenous fibrinolytic therapy. Methods: In a prospective cross-sectional study, we evaluated the 1-month outcome of cases with a confirmed diagnosis of AIS who had received UIT therapy at the emergency department. Demographic data, mortality and morbidity, hospital length of stay, admission functional disability by Modified Rankin Scale (MRS), National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), and final disposition of patients were all evaluated and recorded via their medical records or structured telephone inquiries. We compared all variables between the 2 groups (i.e., survived and expired groups). Results: Among 490 cases we assessed, age had a mean +/- SD of 69.41 +/- 12.25 years, and most cases were males (74.3%). The 1-month mortality rate in our sample was 4.08% (20 cases). The mean +/- SD of hospital length of stay was 6.84 +/- 7.32 days, with no significant difference between the 2 groups (P= 0.869). Demographic data showed no significant differences between the 2 groups. NIHSS and MRS scores were significantly higher in the expired group than in the survived group (P = 0.005 and P = 0.001, respectively). Conclusions: NIHSS and MRS scores were significantly higher in the expired cases. The 1-month mortality rate in this study was 4.08%.