Oral anticoagulation (OAC) prevents stroke in atrial fibrillation, yet a residual stroke risk remains. In this single-center retrospective analysis of acute ischemic stroke patients despite OAC, suboptimal OAC treatment is common (30%: inappropriate dosing (17%); patient non-adherence (13%)). Other causes of stroke included OAC interruption (14.5%), a competing stroke mechanism (11.0%), and undetermined breakthrough stroke in 44.5%. Overall, easily modifiable causes of ischemic stroke despite OAC are common. Accordingly, strategies to improve treatment compliance, including appropriate dosing along with guideline-based risk factor and periprocedural OAC management, should be emphasized to improve secondary stroke prevention in this patient population.

The goal of effective neuroprotection in acute ischemic stroke remains elusive. Despite decades of experimental preclinical and clinical experience with innumerable agents, no strategy has proven to be beneficial in humans. As endovascular therapies mature and approach the limits of speed and efficacy, neuroprotection will become the next frontier of acute stroke care. This review will briefly summarize the history, preclinical and clinical triumphs and failures, and future directions of cerebral neuroprotection.

This is an observational cohort study comparing 156 patients evaluated for acute stroke between March 30 and May 31, 2020 at a comprehensive stroke center with 138 patients evaluated during the corresponding time period in 2019. During the pandemic, the proportion of COVID-19 positive patients was low (3%), the time from symptom onset to hospital presentation was significantly longer, and a smaller proportion of patients underwent reperfusion therapy. Among patients directly evaluated at our institution, door-to-needle and door-to-recanalization metrics were significantly longer. Our findings support concerns that the current pandemic may have a negative impact on the management of acute stroke.

Introduction: The effectiveness of intravenous alteplase is highly time dependent, and very short door-to-needle times (DNT) of 30 minutes or less have been reported in single centre hospitals, but never in an entire population. QuICR (Quality Improvement and Clinical Research) Alberta Stroke Program aimed to reduce DNT to a median of 30 minutes across the Canadian province of Alberta. Methods: We used the Improvement Collaborative Methodology from early 2015 to September 2016 with participation from all 17 Stroke Centres in Alberta. This methodology included 4 face-to-face workshops, site visits, webinars, data collection, data feedback, intensive process mapping, and process improvements. We compared data in the pre-intervention period from 2009-2014 (collected during the Alberta Provincial Stroke Strategy) to data in the post-intervention period from March 2016-February 2017 (collected during the QuICR DTN Collaborative). Data from January 2015-February 2016 were excluded, as improvements were being implemented during this time. Results: There were a total of 2,322 treated cases in the pre- and post-intervention periods. The results show that the median DNT dropped from 68 minutes (n=1846) in the pre-intervention period to 36 minutes (n=476) in the post-intervention period (p<0.001). There were reductions in DNT across all hospital types: median DNT dropped from 63 to 32 minutes in Urban Tertiary Centres (p<0.001), from 73 to 32 minutes in Community with 24/7 neurology (p<0.001), from 85 to 62 minutes in Community with limited/no neurology (p<0.001), and from 74 to 52.5 minutes in rural centres (p<0.001). Conclusion: There were 21.5 to 41 minute reductions in median DNT across all hospital types including smaller rural and community hospitals. A targeted multi-site improvement collaborative can be an effective intervention to reduce DNT across an entire population.

Background: Hyperacute stroke is a time-sensitive emergency for which outcomes improve with faster treatment. When stroke systems are accessed via emergency medical services (EMS), patients are routed to hyperacute stroke centres and are treated faster. But over a third of patients with strokes do not come to the hospital by EMS, and may inadvertently arrive at centres that do not provide acute stroke services. We developed and studied the impact of protocols to quickly identify and move “walk-in” patients from non-hyperacute hospitals to regional stroke centres (RSCs). Methods and Results: Protocols were developed by a multi-disciplinary and multi-institutional working group and implemented across 14 acute hospital sites within the Greater Toronto Area in December of 2012. Key metrics were recorded 18 months pre- and post-implementation. The teams regularly reviewed incident reports of protocol non-adherence and patient flow data. Transports increased by 80% from 103 to 185. The number of patients receiving tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) increased by 68% from 34 to 57. Total EMS transport time decreased 17 minutes (mean time of 54.46 to 37.86 minutes, p<0.0001). Calls responded to within 9 minutes increased from 34 to 59%. Conclusions: A systems-based approach that included a multi-organizational collaboration and consensus-based protocols to move patients from non-hyperacute hospitals to RSCs resulted in more patients receiving hyperacute stroke interventions and improvements in EMS response and transport times. As hyperacute stroke care becomes more centralized and endovascular therapy becomes more broadly implemented, the protocols developed here can be employed by other regions organizing patient flow across systems of stroke care.

Background: Few studies have tracked stroke survivors through transitions across the health system and identified the most common trajectories and quality of care received. The objectives of our study were to examine the trajectories that incident stroke patients experience and to quantify the extent to which their care adhered to the best practices for stroke care. Methods: A population-based cohort of first-ever stroke/transient ischemic attack (TIA) patients from the 2012/13 Ontario Stroke Audit was linked to administrative databases using an encrypted health card number to identify dominant trajectories (N=12,362). All trajectories began in the emergency department (ED) and were defined by the transitions that followed immediately after the ED. Quality indicators were calculated to quantify best practice adherence within trajectories. Results: Six trajectories of stroke care were identified with significant variability in patient characteristics and quality of care received. Almost two-thirds (64.5%) required hospital admission. Trajectories that only involved the ED had the lowest rates of brain and carotid artery imaging (91.5 and 44.2%, respectively). Less than 20% of patients in trajectories involving hospital admissions received care on a stroke unit. The trajectory involving inpatient rehabilitation received suboptimal secondary prevention measures. Conclusions: There are six main trajectories stroke patients follow, and adherence to best practices varies by trajectory. Trajectories resulting in patients being transitioned to home care following ED management only are least likely and those including inpatient rehabilitation are most likely to receive stroke best practices. Increased time in facility-based care results in greater access to best practices. Stroke patients receiving only ED care require closer follow-up by stroke specialists.

Background: More timely administration of tissue plasminogen activator (alteplase) for patients with acute ischemic stroke yields greater clinical benefits. We implemented door-to-needle (DTN) time reduction strategies at our center and evaluated their short- and long-term effects on in-hospital treatment delays and clinical outcomes. Methods: Strategies, including stroke team prenotification, direct computed tomography transfer, not routinely waiting for laboratory results and alteplase delivery on the computed tomography table, were implemented in June 2013. We included all thrombolysed patients admitted directly to our hospital between January 2012 and March 2015. In-hospital delays and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage rates were compared between patients pre- and postmodification, and the latter period was divided into early (first 6 months) and late (beyond 6 months) phases to assess the durability of our modifications. Results: Forty-eight individuals were treated premodification compared with 58 postmodification. The median DTN time was reduced from 75 to 46 minutes (p<0.0001). The median DTN time in the early and late postmodification phases was not significantly different (41 vs 46 minutes, p=0.4085). There was no significant difference in rates of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage (4.2 vs 1.7%, p=0.361) or stroke mimics (2.1 ves 5.2%, p=0.625) Conclusions: We were able to decrease our DTN time for acute stroke thrombolysis by implementing relatively simple modifications and these improvements persisted over time.

Decision-making among older patients with stroke, their families and professionals has been extensively studied in a Western context, but there has been little prior work in China. The study reported here explored how decision-making took place between older people with stroke, their family carers and professionals in an acute care context in mainland China using a constructivist grounded theory approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, participant observation and documentary analysis. Constant comparative analysis of the data was carried out. This paper focuses on the key social process of ‘hiding’ and its dynamic relationship with the core category ‘keeping the peace’. In order to meet the traditional Chinese cultural value of ‘maintaining harmony’, both family carers and professionals hid essential information from older stroke survivors who, as a consequence, were effectively precluded from playing an active role in major decisions. In understanding ‘hiding’, the paper draws upon both Chinese cultural values and ‘awareness context theory’ and in so doing questions the relevance to the Chinese context of key Western notions such as involvement in health-care decision-making. A better understanding of the experiences of decision-making processes between older people with stroke, their family carers and professionals in China will help professionals to provide the best possible support and care whilst promoting informed decision-making amongst all concerned.

ABSTRACT

Background: The benefit of intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) in acute ischemic stroke is related to clot lysis and arterial recanalization. Argatroban is a direct thrombin inhibitor that safely augments the benefit of rtPA in animal stroke models. However, human data on this combination are limited. Design: We report an update of the Argatroban tPA Stroke Study, an ongoing prospective, open-label, dose escalation, safety, and activity study of argatroban and rtPA in patients with ischemic stroke. The primary outcome was incidence of intracerebral hemorrhage; secondary outcome, complete recanalization at 2 h. After standard dose intravenous rtPA administration, a 100-μg/kg bolus of argatroban followed by infusion of 1 μg/kg per min for 48 h was adjusted to a target partial thromboplastin time of 1.75 times baseline. Results: Twenty patients with middle cerebral artery occlusions (including 13 men) have been enrolled, with a mean ± SD age of 61 ± 13 years. Baseline median National Institute of Health Stroke Scale score was 12.5 (range, 3–25). The mean ± SD time from symptom onset to argatroban bolus administration was 177 ± 56 min. Symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage occurred in 2 patients, including 1 with parenchymal hemorrhage type 2. Asymptomatic bleeding occurred in 2 patients and there was 1 death. Recanalization was complete in 7 patients and partial in another 7, and reocclusion occurred in 4 within 2 h of rtPA bolus administration. Conclusion: The combination of low-dose argatroban and intravenous rtPA may be safe, and produce faster and more complete recanalization, but a larger cohort of patients is required to confirm this pilot study.