Podcasts about nihss

Ridgeview Podcast: CME Series

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 18, 2022 35:27

On Episode 19 of the Stroke Alert Podcast, host Dr. Negar Asdaghi highlights two articles from the August 2022 issue of Stroke: “Direct to Angiosuite Versus Conventional Imaging in Suspected Large Vessel Occlusion” and “Recurrent Ischemic Stroke and Bleeding in Patients With AF Who Suffered an Acute Stroke While on Treatment With NOACs.” She also interviews Dr. Alexander Nave about “Combined Oral Triglyceride and Glucose Tolerance Test After Acute Ischemic Stroke to Predict Recurrent Vascular Events.” Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Let's start with a few questions. 1) How much time do we actually save if we were to transfer all patients with suspected target vessel occlusion directly to the angiosuite and practically bypassing our current conventional imaging model? 2) What is the impact of an impaired metabolic state as measured by abnormal glucose and triglyceride tolerance tests on the risk of stroke recurrence in patients with ischemic stroke? 3) And finally, should we or should we not change the anticoagulant therapy of a patient with atrial fibrillation who suffered an ischemic stroke despite appropriate treatment with anticoagulation? We have the answers to these questions and much more in today's podcast because this is the best in Stroke. Stay with us. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Welcome back to another issue of the Stroke Alert Podcast. My name is Negar Asdaghi. I'm an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and your host for the monthly Stroke Alert Podcast. The August 2022 issue of Stroke contains a range of really stimulating articles. We have an interesting study titled "Individual and Joint Effects of Influenza-Like Illness and Vaccinations on Stroke in the Young," led by Dr. Amelia Boehme and colleagues from Columbia University, with its accompanying editorial on how influenza-like illness is associated with increased risk of stroke in the young and middle-aged population while vaccinations of any type is protective of this risk. In a different paper, as part of a population-based study out of Scotland, Dr. Rustam Al-Shahi Salman from University of Edinburgh and colleagues report on a positive association between the use of beta-blockers, especially propranolol, and a lower risk of cerebral cavernous malformation, or CCM, associated intracranial hemorrhage. This study's findings are very interesting and quite important, and I encourage you to review the growing literature to suggest how beta-blockers may, in fact, reduce the risk of CCM-related hemorrhages through their anti-angiogenic properties. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Later in the podcast, I have the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Alexander Nave from Charité University Hospital in Berlin to discuss the relationship between having an impaired metabolic state in the setting of acute stroke and the risk of ischemic stroke recurrence, as we'll review the long-awaited results of the Berlin "Cream&Sugar" study, a very catchy title. But first, with these two articles. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Time to successful endovascular reperfusion is an important predictor of clinical outcomes in patients with acute ischemic stroke related to a large vessel occlusion. And for years, we've known that the faster we're able to open the affected artery, the better the ischemic stroke outcomes are. Correspondingly, systems of care have adapted to various requirements of this so-called rapid workflow to ensure that all necessary pre-reperfusion steps are completed as fast as possible, preferably most in parallel to one another. And if any steps are unnecessary, they're bypassed altogether. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Despite all these modifications to date, time from conventional imaging to angiosuite arrival remains both the longest and the most variable interval in the intra-hospital workflow prior to endovascular therapy. So, it's not surprising that many recent studies have evaluated whether the current model of hospital arrival, then transfer to the scanner for imaging, then transfer to the angiosuite for endovascular therapy, can be replaced by a simpler model where, based on clinical assessment, a patient with high likelihood of having a target vessel occlusion can directly be transferred to the angiosuite, where fast stroke imaging, including CT, CT angiogram, and CT perfusion, are completed on the angiotable using the flat panel imaging technology. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: If the patient is then found to be eligible to receive reperfusion therapies, including intravenous thrombolytics, they can receive the treatments and then proceed to endovascular thrombectomy without any further delays. So, in this issue of the journal, in the study titled "Direct to Angiosuite Versus Conventional Imaging in Suspected Large Vessel Occlusion," Dr. Raul Nogueira from Department of Neurology at Emory University and colleagues performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published articles on this topic. So, they included seven articles for this analysis after pulling over 4000 articles using the common search engines for this meta-analysis. These articles included two single-centered European randomized controlled trials, one conducted in Germany, and the other one conducted in Spain, and five observational studies for a total of 1971 patients. The primary outcome was the odds of achieving favorable neurological recovery as defined by a modified Rankin Scale of zero to two at 90 days. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Now, a few things to note: All studies reported door-to-puncture times, but not all reported door-to-reperfusion times or rate of successful reperfusion, and we know that these metrics are important in predicting the odds of safety and efficacy outcomes of endovascular therapy. And also it's important to note that not all details of the safety and efficacy outcome measures were reported in all of those seven studies. So, with that, here are the main findings of the meta-analysis. First off, amongst patients who were directly transferred to the angiosuite across these seven studies, the overall rate of false activation was 28%, meaning that after imaging assessment, 28% of those who were directly taken to the angiotable were not found to have a target occlusion, and as such, there was no need to further proceed to endovascular thrombectomy. And this is a practical finding of this meta-analysis as we deal with resource allocation and concerns of potentially overwhelming the neurointerventional teams. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Now, moving on to the next finding of the study, the direct angio approach significantly reduced door-to-puncture times by a median of 30 minutes, and door-to-reperfusion times, when these metrics were available, by a median of 33 minutes as compared to the conventional imaging approach. So, bypassing conventional CT does translate into faster time metrics. These were, of course, expected findings of this meta-analysis, but nonetheless, important to quantify. But these faster time metrics did not improve the endovascular procedural outcomes, meaning that the direct to angio approach did not increase the odds of achieving a TICI 2b or better reperfusion, which is how successful reperfusion is defined, or the odds of achieving full reperfusion, meaning modified TICI 2c or greater reperfusion. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, it's great to get to the angiosuite fast, but that does not impact the procedural outcomes of endovascular therapy. Despite the above, the faster approach resulted in a significantly better functional independence outcome as measured by mRS Scale at 90 days, again emphasizing how important time is when it comes to endovascular outcomes. Now, the authors also performed a number of subgroup analysis in this meta-analysis, which I'd like to highlight some of them. We know that the impact of time on endovascular outcomes is more robust in the early time window. So, not surprisingly, when restricting the primary outcomes to those presenting within six hours from symptom onset, the favorable effect of direct to angio approach persisted in the early time window as well. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Another important subgroup analysis was when restricting data to those patients who were transferred from a primary hospital to an endovascularly-capable center, the direct angio method didn't really have a significant impact on improving the primary outcome. Why is that? Let me repeat. So, when they restricted the analysis to those patients who were transferred from one hospital to an endovascularly-capable center, they did not find the same significant positive impact on endovascular outcomes in the direct to angio approach. I think the way we can explain this from a pathophysiological standpoint is that transferred patients are more likely to be slow progressors and, therefore, less likely to be impacted by delays in the workflow process as compared to the fast progressors. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Take-home message: We've got to be fast in the fast progressors, and it's safe to assume that those who are within the first six hours after presentation are more likely to be fast progressors, and these workflow modifications are, therefore, much more robust and much more impactful in patients who present early on after their symptoms onset. And finally, in terms of safety outcomes, there were no significant differences in the rate of symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage rate or the 90-day mortality rates either for the whole study population or when the analysis was restricted to those treated in the early time window. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, in summary, what we learned from this large meta-analysis is that as compared to the current conventional imaging model, the direct transfer to angio model is not only plausible and unlikely to overwhelm the interventional teams, as only less than 30% of patients in a direct method were not eligible for endovascular thrombectomy, but also this method is safe and results in significant improvements in workflow time metrics and functional outcomes. So, as the saying goes, select faster, select less, and treat more will likely be the future of endovascular therapy, particularly in the early time window. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: We know that oral anticoagulants reduce the risk of ischemic events in patients with atrial fibrillation. Nonvitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants, or NOACs, also known as direct oral anticoagulants, or DOACs, are currently the standard of care for treatment of patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Now, we have to keep in mind that although NOACs reduce the risk of ischemic stroke and systemic embolism in atrial fibrillation, they don't completely abolish the risk. So, they're not curative treatments for AFib, and patients can still experience embolic events despite appropriate treatment with these agents. In a meta-analysis of randomized trials, the residual risk of ischemic events in patients treated with NOACs was estimated at 1.4% per year, but this number is a lot lower than what is reported by real-life observational studies. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: In the large multicenter RENO study, which was published in this journal in 2019, we learned that in the setting of atrial fibrillation treated with a NOAC, a number of factors, including atrial enlargement, dyslipidemia, scoring high on the CHA2DS2-VASc score, and the use of low dose of NOACs, especially off-label low dose use of these medications, are significantly associated with increased risk of recurrent ischemic events despite treatment. But there's still a number of important questions that we routinely encounter in practice, most important of which is how to manage these patients with these so-called breakthrough ischemic events moving forward? Do we switch them to a different NOAC or go back to a vitamin K antagonist? Should we add an antiplatelet treatment to the regimen? And importantly, how do we counsel these patients and their families on their future risk of recurrent ischemic or hemorrhagic events? Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, in the current issue of the journal, the RENO investigators, led by Dr. Maurizio Paciaroni and Valeria Caso, set out to answer some of these important questions as part of the RENO-EXTEND study, which basically followed the patients in the RENO cohort for at least 12 months, evaluating them for either recurrent ischemic or hemorrhagic events, whether occurring intra or extracranially. So, a bit about this cohort. The RENO study was a multicenter observational cohort across 43 centers in Europe and the United States, including consecutive patients with atrial fibrillation who presented to the hospital with an acute ischemic stroke despite being on a NOAC therapy. Patients were enrolled in the study only if they were compliant with their NOAC treatment and they had not missed their treatment for any reasons for greater than 24 hours prior to their index event. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: The patients were followed in the cohort and the choice of whether or not to start and timing, very importantly, for resumption of anticoagulation therapies were left to the discretion of the treating physicians. For the current paper, they analyzed 1240 patients. After the index event, 39.5%, so close to 40%, had their NOACs changed to another NOAC, mostly to a different class of NOAC. 42.5% continued with the same NOAC at the same dose. 6.7% continued with the same NOAC, but the dose was increased, and a small percentage were shifted to warfarin, that was only 4.7% of the patients. And 6.6% were shifted to low molecular weight heparin or were never prescribed oral anticoagulations after that index event for a variety of reasons, such as earlier ischemic recurrence, early hemorrhagic transformation, or early death or severe index stroke. And the overall median follow up in the study was 15 months. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, with that, here are the main study findings. The annual rate of the primary outcome of recurrent ischemic or hemorrhagic events, again, a reminder that these could have been intra or extracranial events, was 13.4%. The majority of these events were ischemic stroke, followed by major extracranial bleeding, then intracranial bleeding and systemic embolism. We have to note that this overall primary outcome rate is a lot higher than what was observed as part of the randomized trials of NOACs, as we noted earlier, which is an important finding of these real-life studies. Now, with regards to the factors predicting the primary outcome, having a higher CHA2DS2-VASc score and persistent hypertension were both predictive of recurrent ischemic events, whether ischemic stroke or systemic embolism. Next, the predictive factors for hemorrhagic events, either intracranial or major extracranial bleeding, included age, for each year increase in age, the odds increased by 1.1; history of major bleeding in the past; and, very importantly, a scenario that not uncommonly happens in routine practice, which is the addition of antiplatelet to a NOAC after the so-called NOAC failure. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: And finally, it turns out that changing that failed NOAC to a different agent didn't really seem to make a difference at all. As we mentioned earlier, close to 40% of patients were changed from one NOAC to another agent after the index ischemic event, and when they looked at the primary outcome, there was no difference in the rate of combined ischemic and hemorrhagic events, or the ischemic events alone, or bleeding outcomes alone, amongst patients who changed their NOAC to a different agent as compared to those who did not. The authors performed a number of subanalyses to see whether a particular strategy, for example, a switch from a particular class of NOACs to another class, or change in dosage, or NOAC to warfarin change, may be more or less beneficial in reducing the primary outcome, and there was really no difference between any of these strategies with the exception of one group. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: It turns out that the cumulative risk of ischemic and hemorrhagic events were a lot higher in those 6.6% of patients in whom NOAC treatment was changed to low molecular weight heparin injection. But I think one should consider this observation as hypothesis generating. First off, it was just a very small percentage of patients in this study that actually did go through this switch. And also we should note that in practice, we reserve a switch to low molecular weight heparin injection in only special cases. Some examples would be patients in whom there's a consideration of a hypercoagulable state, whether cancer related or not. But regardless, I think what we learned from this finding is that the patients in whom low molecular weight heparin injection is considered after a NOAC or an anticoagulant failure are likely very high risk patients for recurrent thromboembolic and hemorrhagic events. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, in summary, we learned a number of important lessons from RENO-EXTEND study. Number one, patients with atrial fibrillation presenting with a breakthrough ischemic stroke, despite treatment with NOAC, represent a high-risk group of patients who continue to be at a substantial risk for recurrent events, mostly ischemic, but also hemorrhagic. And this substantial risk was actually over 10% in the current study. Number two, we also learned that various strategies of changing the dose or class of anticoagulants don't seem to have much, if any, benefit in reducing the recurrent event outcomes. And finally, the addition of antiplatelet to oral anticoagulant therapies in this situation is not a good idea. This strategy gets us more in trouble and can increase the risk of bleeding and confers practically no benefits. Finally, these are the types of patients in whom we may have to consider other treatment options, such as left atrial appendage closure, and I'm sure we'll hear more on this in the future. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Having an abnormal lipid profile has long been recognized as a risk factor for development of vascular disorders, particularly leading to atherosclerosis, but this association varies for the different components of the lipid panel and is most robust for elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, or LDL, causing various vascular disorders. Amongst patients with ischemic stroke and TIA, randomized trials have also shown that lowering LDL can reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events, including the risk of ischemic stroke, but the connection between elevated triglyceride levels and the risk of recurrent ischemic stroke is less clear. Moving from lipids to sugar, the presence of uncontrolled diabetes increases the risk of stroke by two to five folds, depending on the patient population studied and coexistence of other risk factors. In contrast, impaired glucose tolerance, which is an intermediate metabolic state between normal glucose tolerance and diabetes, has also been found to be associated with an increased risk of stroke in patients with coronary artery disease, but this association is less clear amongst patients with ischemic stroke. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: In clinical practice, fasting blood glucose and lipid profiles are routinely measured post-stroke, but we put a greater emphasis on the elevated LDL and hemoglobin A1C levels, and, in general, pay less attention, if any, to other metabolic derangements, including the impaired glucose tolerance state or even abnormal triglyceride levels. So, the question is, what is the impact of these metabolic derangements on the risk of stroke recurrence amongst patients presenting with ischemic stroke? In the current issue of the journal, in the study titled "A Combined Oral Triglyceride and Glucose Tolerance Test After Acute Ischemic Stroke to Predict Recurrent Vascular Events: The Berlin 'Cream&Sugar' Study," we learn about these important associations. Joining me now is the first author of this paper, Dr. Alexander Nave. Dr. Nave is a neurologist and clinician scientist at Charité University Hospital in Berlin. He leads a junior research group as part of the Center of Stroke Research in Berlin and has a special interest in stroke rehabilitation and cardioembolic risk factors of stroke. Good morning, Alex, from Miami. Good afternoon to you in Berlin. Thank you for joining us. Welcome to our podcast. Dr. Alexander Nave: Hi, thank you very much. I'm very happy to be with you. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: All right. Let's go over the background of what we knew on the association between elevated triglyceride levels and the risk of recurrent stroke. Dr. Alexander Nave: Sure. So, as you pointed out earlier, diabetes and hypercholesterolemia are well established risk factors for first and recurrent ischemic stroke. However, for triglyceride levels, this association is less well understood and somewhat inconclusive. So, prior large epidemiological studies of the healthy population from the U.S. and from Denmark have shown an independent association of triglyceride levels in the risk of vascular events, including ischemic stroke. This association was actually stronger for non-fasting triglycerides levels compared to fasting triglycerides levels. In the ischemic stroke population, however, there were only a few investigations with conflicting results. So, the SPARCL trial, for example, which was a large secondary prevention stroke trial with more than 3000 stroke patients, showed that triglyceride levels were associated with major cardiovascular events, but not with recurrent ischemic stroke. So, therefore, we designed the Berlin “Cream&Sugar” study to investigate the association of postprandial triglyceride levels following an oral triglyceride tolerance test with recurrent vascular risk. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, let me just summarize. From SPARCL, actually, we knew that an increased level of triglycerides were associated with increased risk of development of cardiovascular events, so things such as coronary artery events and so on, but not an increased risk of stroke. And that's where you come in with the new study, the Berlin “Cream&Sugar” study. Now, before we talk about the study, can you tell us a little bit about the tests that were done, the oral triglyceride and glucose tolerance tests? Dr. Alexander Nave: Absolutely. So, both tests eventually help us to evaluate the glucose and lipid metabolism of a patient. So, the OGTT, the oral glucose tolerance test, as most of the listeners probably know, is a test that helps us to assess the ability of the patient to metabolize glucose after receiving a drink with a standard dose of 75 grams of glucose. The blood glucose levels after one hour and two hours then help us to diagnose diabetes or pre-diabetic state of the patient. So, we're not only evaluating the fasting state, but we can also quantify the body's response to a glucose challenge. And as an equivalent, the OTTT, the oral triglyceride tolerance test, will test the ability of a patient to metabolize triglycerides after oral ingestion of a lipid challenge, which is usually a certain amount of fat. However, this test is less well studied and without any standardized diagnostic criteria so far. And in contrast to the OGTT, the OTTT has not been tested in the stroke population so far. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, we're not just looking at those metrics of fasting sugar or fasting lipids and triglycerides specifically, we're looking at the patient's ability to metabolize glucose or triglyceride levels. So, now, with that understanding, can you tell us a little bit about the methodology of the study? Dr. Alexander Nave: Yes, of course. So the Berlin “Cream&Sugar” study was a prospective observational study recruiting acute stroke patients between 2009 and 2017 at the Charité University Hospital in Berlin. And we included first-ever ischemic stroke patients within three days to seven days after onset of stroke, and all patients received a sequential OTTT OGTT. So, all recruited patients received fasting blood sampling in the morning before taking the OTTT with 250 cc of cream, which corresponds to 30% of fat intake. So, all patients without known diabetes mellitus additionally had the OGTT with 75 grams of glucose starting three hours after the OTTT. Dr. Alexander Nave: And all patients received consecutive blood tests at three hours, four hours, and five hours after start of the OTTT to determine the course of glucose and triglyceride levels in the blood. And after one year, we performed follow up of all patients. The primary outcome was recurrent fatal or non-fatal ischemic stroke, and secondary outcome was a composite endpoint of recurrent vascular events, including ischemic stroke, TIA, myocardial infarction, and coronary revascularization, as well as cardiovascular death. And we compared patients with high versus low fasting and nonfasting triglyceride and glucose levels, respectively, using Cox regression analysis. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Okay. 250 cc of cream and 75 grams of sugar right after a stroke. Was it challenging to recruit patients? Dr. Alexander Nave: Yes, that was a task. And we did experience some difficulties during the course of the study. It was not easy to ask a patient to drink a glass of cream during the first week after suffering from a stroke, obviously. In fact, a substantial number of patients eventually did not participate or did not complete the OTTT. However, in our study, we showed that performing a sequential OGTT OTTT within seven days after stroke was feasible. Approximately 10% of patients reported only minor adverse events such as nausea, diarrhea, and bloating. But with regards to the study population, overall, we enrolled 755 patients, 523 have completed the challenge and entered follow up. So, considering the fact that we had some difficulties in recruitment, was not surprising that we predominantly ended up with minor ischemic stroke patients, considering that we did not include patients with dysphagia or patients that were not able to give informed consent in the early phase after stroke. The median NIHSS was one with an interquartile range of zero to three. And, as I mentioned previously, this was because patients with impaired swallowing could not be included into the study. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Okay. So, 750 patients within a week after their stroke, majority of them, as you mentioned, had mild ischemic events, were enrolled, and then they underwent sequential OTTT and OGTT tests. And then they were followed for a year for the primary outcomes. Now I think we're ready to hear the primary results. Dr. Alexander Nave: Sure. So, overall, 54 patients, 10% of the total population, reached a study endpoint within one year follow up. 31 patients experienced recurrent ischemic stroke within one year. So, when we compared the highest quartiles of triglyceride levels to the lowest quartiles, neither fasting nor postprandial triglyceride levels were associated with recurrent stroke. Similarly, fasting triglyceride levels were not associated with major cardiovascular events one year after stroke. Surprisingly though, higher postprandial triglycerides, measured at five hours after OTTT, were significantly associated with a lower risk for recurrent vascular events. The hazard ratio was 0.42, and the confidence interval 0.18 to 0.95. So, regarding glucose levels, on the other hand, we found no associations between glucose levels and recurrent vascular risk at all. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Interesting. So, before I ask you what your takeaway is from all of this, the first question is the 10% rate of primary outcome. Were you at all surprised by this? This seems quite high for the recurrent rate of vascular events after the first year after ischemic stroke and TIA. Dr. Alexander Nave: Well, actually, when the “Cream&Sugar” study was designed, we expected the recurrent event rate to be even higher, approximately 10% of recurrent stroke events within one year and not 10% recurrent vascular events as a composite outcome. But as we know from previous registries, such as the TIA registry, the recurrent risk of vascular events after TIA and minor stroke is much lower now. So, I think with the reported 7% of recurrent stroke events, we're actually quite in line with the reports of the TIA registry, considering the fact also that we had no TIA patients enrolled in our study and had quite a high proportion of patients with large artery atherosclerosis as well as atrial fibrillation. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, thank you. This is a grim reminder that ischemic stroke patients remain at high risk of having recurrent vascular events. Alex, what should be our top two takeaway messages from your study? Dr. Alexander Nave: So, first, I think a sequential OTTT OGTT probably does not contribute a lot to future vascular risk stratification in ischemic stroke patients. So, I think all patients and carers can be relieved. There's no need to implement an OTTT into routine clinical care. However, based on our results, I think further studies are necessary and needed to better understand the importance of glucose and lipid metabolism in patients after acute ischemic stroke. And eventually we might figure out some nice information how we can improve risk prediction. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, it's good to know that we don't have to ask patients to drink a lot of cream after stroke. Can you tell us a little bit about the future of the Berlin “Cream&Sugar” study group? What are the next steps for the authors and the study group? Dr. Alexander Nave: Absolutely. Well, since there's no urgent need to start another large study soon, I think it would be reasonable to get our data and merge it with datas from other groups who also investigated the role of an OTTT in cardiovascular risk cohorts, also to increase power and detect some other signals. And we want to have a more detailed look at the variability of triglycerides and glucose levels following sequential OTTT OGTT. So, not only go into the absolute levels that you can measure at certain time points, but also how much these parameters fluctuate over time. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: To Alexander Nave, it's been a pleasure interviewing you on the podcast today. We look forward to covering more of your work in the future. Dr. Alexander Nave: Thank you very much. It was a pleasure to talk to you. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: And this concludes our podcast for the August 2022 issue of Stroke. Please be sure to check out this month's table of contents for the full list of publications, including three topical reviews, from “Strategies for Maintaining Brain Health: The Role of Stroke Risk Factors Unique to Elderly Women” to “Ethical Considerations in Surgical Decompression for Stroke.” These articles summarize a large body of evidence, which I encourage you to review. And before we end our August podcast, I'd like to take a moment to recognize the incredible dedication and hard work of our medical students and fellows, especially the young doctors who are just starting their training this year. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: And if you happen to be one of those young doctors who is listening to our podcast in one of those sleepless on-call nights, I want to recount the story of Dr. Carl David Anderson, who won the Nobel Prize in physics for his discovery of the first particle of antimatter known as positron on August 2, 1932. A positron is actually the identical twin of the well-known negative electron, and its discovery in the 1930s truly changed our understanding of the origin of the universe, and it's practically impacted all aspects of science, not to mention it's impacted medicine and medical imaging. But the moral of the story lies in the fact that on August 2, when Anderson announced his discovery, he was a post-doctoral fellow himself, hadn't even graduated yet. So, if you are such a trainee, I hope you know that your hard work, combined with that incredible scientific inquisition, has the potential to change our understanding of the universe. And what better way to do this? You guessed it, than staying alert with Stroke Alert. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: This program is copyright of the American Heart Association, 2022. The opinions expressed by speakers in this podcast are their own and not necessarily those of the editors or of the American Heart Association. For more, visit AHAjournals.org.

Could this be the - plase? Tenecteplase or alteplase for acute ischemic stroke, part 1

VerifiedRx

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2022 21:01

Dr. James Braun, Neurosciences Pharmacy Clinical Specialist at SSM Health St. Louis, and Dr. Kyle Hoelting, Senior Manager of Drug Information at Vizient, share their insights on the use of tenecteplase vs alteplase for treating acute ischemic stroke. They also discuss the nuances of this therapeutic area and share recent work from an expert panel led by Vizient. Guest speakers: James Braun, PharmD, BCCCP Neurosciences Pharmacy Clinical Specialist SSM Health Kyle Hoelting, PharmD, BCPS Senior Manager of Drug Information Vizient Moderator: Gretchen Brummel, PharmD, BCPS Pharmacy Executive Director Vizient Center for Pharmacy Practice Excellence Show Notes: [00:58-3:00] James' background and his role in the treatment of stroke patients [03:01-5:09] History of tenecteplase and alteplase for ischemic stroke [05:10-6:56] Information about trials of alteplase [06:57-8:11] Where Tenecteplase fits in discussion [08:12-9:51] Differences with tenecteplase and alteplase to clinicians [9:52-12:00] What studies say about potential, practical advantages of tenecteplase [12:01-19:55] Making the switch between agents Links | Resources: Verified Rx: Evidenced based medicine Click here Verified Rx: Show me the data! Updates on the evidence of thrombolytic use in ischemic strokes Click here Verified Rx: Information overload: tips and tricks for staying on top of the literature, part 1 Click here Verified Rx: Information overload: tips and tricks for staying on top of the literature, part 2 Click here Identifying errors and safety considerations in patients undergoing thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke Click here EXTEND-IA TNK Click here Australian-TNK Click here Meta-analysis NIHSS outcomes Click here NOR-TEST Click here Subscribe Today! Apple Podcasts Amazon Podcasts Google Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Android RSS Feed

history differences senior manager pharmd acute ischemic stroke vizient nihss alteplase drug information ssm health st

Treatment of Mild Stroke-Medical Management

F.A.S.T Chats

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2022 27:15

In this episode we discuss “Mild Stroke” with Dr. David Franco from Nebraska Methodist Hospital. It is important to look at disabilities and not just classify a low NIHSS as a “mild stroke”.Disclosure statement: The opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the presenter and may not necessarily reflect AHA/ASA's official positions. This podcast is intended for educational purposes and do not replace independent professional judgment. AHA/ASA does not endorse any product or device.A Hurrdat Media Production. Hurrdat Media is a digital media and commercial video production company based in Omaha, NE. Find more podcasts on the Hurrdat Media Network and learn more about our other services today on HurrdatMedia.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

treatments omaha stroke disclosure mild medical management hurrdat media hurrdat media network hurrdat media production nihss david franco

Acil Tıpta Girişimsel Radyolojinin Yeri-2: Trombotik Olaylar

Acilci.Net Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 6, 2022 20:24

Mekanik trombektomi/embolektomi görüntüleme eşliğinde ve endovasküler cihazların kullanılarak trombüsün çıkarılma işlemidir. Bu işlem geri toplanabilir stentler, direkt aspirasyon ve bunların kombinasyonu şeklinde kateter aracılı çeşitli prosedürler ile gerçekleştirilebilmekte ve her geçen gün yeni araçlar, yeni endovasküler cihazlar geliştirilmektedir. Aynı zamanda girişimsel radyoloji, mekanik yöntemlerin yanı sıra kateter aracılı tromboliz gibi farmakolojik tedaviler için de imkan sağlamaktadır. Bu uygulamalar, acil tıp klinisyenlerini akut iskemik inme (Aİİ) ve pulmoner tromboemboli (PTE) durumlarında yakından ilgilendirse de fayda görebilecek hastaların belirlenmesi özellikle trombektomi uygulanabilen merkezlerin sınırlı sayıda olması ve aynı zamanda yeni teknikler olması nedeniyle endikasyonların yıllar içerisinde devamlı güncellenmesi gibi sebeplerle aslında o kadar da kolay olmamaktadır. Ancak klasik tedavilerle istenen sonucun elde edilemediği veya bu tedavilere uygun olmayan hastalarda girişimsel radyolojinin uygulamaları güçlü ve umut vaat eden bir alternatif olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. AKUT İSKEMİK İNMEDE MEKANİK TROMBEKTOMİ Aİİ'de uygun zaman diliminde başvurulduğu ve kontrendikasyon olmadığı müddetçe birinci basamak tedavinin IV tromboliz olduğunu biliyoruz. IV tromboliz için uygun olmayan ya da semptom başlangıcından >4,5 saat sonra başvuran hastalar içinse mekanik trombektomi bir tedavi alternatifi olarak karşımıza çıkmakta. Bu hastalarda bir alternatif sağlamasının yanı sıra anterior dolaşımda büyük damar oklüzyonu (BDO) olan hastalarda uygun zaman diliminde başvuru durumunda IV tromboliz ile birlikte bir tedavi standartı olarak kabul ediliyor. Ama mekanik trombektomi uygulanabilmesi için yine belli şartların sağlanmış olması gerekiyor. 2015 yılında yayınlanan MR CLEAN, ESCAPE, SWIFT PRIME, EXTEND-IA ve REVASCAT gibi randomize kontrollü çalışmalar ve bu çalışmalara dayanarak gerçekleştirilen HERMES metaanalizi ile erken intraarteriyel tedavinin güvenilir olduğu ve fonksiyonel kısıtlılığı azalttığı, ayrıca standart tedavi olan tek başına IV trombolize göre birlikte kullanımının üstünlüğü gösterildikten sonra mekanik trombektomi anterior BDO olan hastalarda standart tedavi haline gelmişti1–6. Bu standart başta özellikle semptom başlangıcından 6 saat içinde olan ve anterior BDO olan hastalar için geçerliydi. Ancak yapılan çalışmaların dahil etme kriterlerinin oldukça katı olması nedeniyle bu kriterler dışında kalan ama mekanik trombektomiden potansiyel fayda görebilecek hastaların tespiti konu ile ilgili en önemli güncel soru haline geldi. 2018 yılında DAWN7 ve DEFUSE-38 çalışmalarının tamamlanması ile 24 saate kadar mekanik trombektomi ve standart medikal bakımı alan hastalarda sonlanımların, sadece medikal tedavi alan hastalara göre daha iyi olduğu gösterildi (bu iki çalışmanın dahil etme kriterlerini Tablo-1'de bulabilirsiniz). Böylece yine belli şartları sağladığı müddetçe 24 saat içerisinde BDO ilişkili Aİİ hastaları mekanik trombektomi adayı haline geldi. Bu hastalardan ilk 6 saat içerisinde olanlar NIHSS ≥6, ASPECTS ≥6, BT ya da MRG ile intrakraniyal kanaması dışlanan, BT anjiografi-MR anjiografi ya da dijital substraksiyon anjiografi ile büyük damar oklüzyonu saptanan, 18 yaşından büyük hastalar mekanik trombektomi ile tedavi edilebilmekte. Bunlara ek olarak AHA/ASA9 kılavuzlarında ön şart olarak işlem öncesi mRS (modifiye rankin skoru) 0-1 olması gerektiği de belirtilmekte. Ancak ilk 4,5 saatinde olup kontrendikasyonu olmayan hastalarda IV trombolizin de verilmesi gerekiyor. Eğer hasta 6-24 saat aralığında başvurduysa DAWN veya DEFUSE-3 çalışmalarının kriterlerini sağlaması durumunda mekanik trombektomi uygulanabiliyor. Posterior dolaşım içinse henüz çalışmalar yeterli olmasa da seçilmiş hastalarda ilk 6 saat içerisinde uygulanabileceği hem AHA/ASA kılavuzunda hem de ESO/ESMINT10 kılavuzunda belirtilmiş. (Güncel kılavuz önerilerinin özetini Tablo-2'de bulabilirsiniz.)

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2021-22 Stroke Updates with Dr. Ron Tarrel

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2022 71:32

In this podcast, Dr. Ron Tarrel, a Stroke Neurologist with Allina Health, discusses everything stroke. Dr. Tarrel walks through recognition, evaluation, and management of stroke. He also discusses current guidelines, as well as the future of stroke medicine. Enjoy the podcast! Objectives: Upon completion of this podcast, participants should be able to: Identify and describe warning signs of stroke and its initial presentation. Assess when initial urgent/emergent evaluation, imaging, coordination of care and decision making needs to occur in regards to stroke. Discuss treatment options and indications in regards to stroke care. CME credit is only offered to Ridgeview Providers & Allied Health Staff for this podcast activity. Complete and submit the online evaluation form, after viewing the activity. Upon successful completion of the evaluation, you will be e-mailed a certificate of completion within approximately 2 weeks. You may contact the accredited provider with questions regarding this program at rmccredentialing@ridgeviewmedical.org. To receive continuing education credit for this activity - click the link below, to complete the activity's evaluation. CME Evaluation (**If you are listening to the podcasts through iTunes on your laptop or desktop, it is not possible to link directly with the CME Evaluation for unclear reasons. We are trying to remedy this. You can, however, link to the survey through the Podcasts app on your Apple and other smart devices, as well as through Spotify, Stitcher and other podcast directory apps and on your computer browser at these websites. We apologize for the inconvenience.) DISCLOSURE ANNOUNCEMENT The information provided through this and all Ridgeview podcasts as well as any and all accompanying files, images, videos and documents is/are for CME/CE and other institutional learning and communication purposes only and is/are not meant to substitute for the independent medical judgment of a physician, healthcare provider or other healthcare personnel relative to diagnostic and treatment options of a specific patient's medical condition; and are property/rights of Ridgeview Medical Center & Clinics. Any re-reproduction of any of the materials presented would be infringement of copyright laws. It is Ridgeview's intent that any potential conflict should be identified openly so that the listeners may form their own judgments about the presentation with the full disclosure of the facts. It is not assumed any potential conflicts will have an adverse impact on these presentations. It remains for the audience to determine whether the speaker's outside interest may reflect a possible bias, either the exposition or the conclusions presented. Ridgeview's CME planning committee members and presenter(s) have disclosed they have no significant financial relationship with a pharmaceutical company and have disclosed that no conflict of interest exists with the presentation/educational event. Thank-you for listening to the podcast. ADDENDUM TO SHOW NOTES:Please note the Dr. Tarrel refers to TPA as a blood thinner at one point throughout the podcast. He would like the listerner to know that this medication (TPA) is a clot dissolving medication and not a blood thinner. Dr. Tarrel does not wish to confuse the listner on the nomenclature of TPA vs blood thinners (i.e. anticoagulants). SHOW NOTES: FAST The American Heart Association (AHA) put forth an initative for the lay person to recognize signs and symptoms of stroke and that was the FAST assessment which is (Facial asymmetry or weakness, Arm weakness, Speech difficulties, and Time), but now it has moved to the BE-FAST screening test. the BE portion of the FAST exam is assessment of Balance and Eyes to determine if there are posterior circulation findings. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.116.015169 HINTS ExamThe HINTS exam is a bit more specific and sensitve, looking for posterior circulation strokes in the correct patient population. Briefly, HINTS is a Head Impulse test direction-changing Nystagmus in eccentric gaze, or skew deviation. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.109.551234 Common DeficitsThe majority of strokes are going to occur in the anterior circulation which would be the carotid distribution, then into MCA (M1, M2, M3, M4, M5). Most of the deficits are going to be unilateral weakness, sensory or cognitive symptoms - example: aphasia/ neglect (cortical symptoms). Whereas, posterior circulation (vertebrobasilar) may have more devastating qualities. Symptoms for posterior stroke can include dizziness, nausea and vomiting, nystagmus, coordination, ataxia. However, see the article linked below where posterior cirulation vs anterior crculation infarcts can sometimes be difficult to determine on a clinical exam alone. Therefore, neuroimaging is recommended to accurately determine stroke distribution. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.112.652420 This study indicates that the symptoms/signs considered typical of posterior circulation infarcts occur far less often than was expected. Inaccurate localization would occur commonly if clinicians relied on the clinical neurological deficits alone to differentiate posterior circulation infarcts from anterior circulation infarcts. Neuroimaging is vital to ensure acurate localization of cerebral infarction. Hemorrhagic vs Ischemic StrokeWhich one is it? According to Dr. Tarrel, intracranial hemorrhage appears to exhibit more headache symptoms, such as this is the "worst headache of my life" , whereas ischemic stroke appears to be more painless, usually. Blood pressure and loss of consciousness can closely mimic hemorrhagic vs ischemic. Telestroke GuidelinesTelestroke guidelines are generally insitution specific. Refer to the linked article below, on the current guidelines in telestroke medicine. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5802246/pdf/tmj.2017.0006.pdf BP / 1st Line AgentFor hemorrhagic strokes, the neurosurgeons and neurologist like the systolic blood pressure to be in the 140-160 range. BP is usually controlled with Nicardipine as a 1st line agent. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.020058 Last Known Well (LKW)Last Known Well (LKW) is extremely important especially since we know that we are working against the closk for the use of lytic therapy (currently 4.5 hour window).https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4630074/pdf/nihms699406.pdf https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.116.023336 Imaging Imaging modalities for stroke workup can often include an initial non-contrast CT of the head to rule out ICH, but hen what happens? Generally, it is recommended to work in concert with the stroke neurologist to then determine the next line of imaging studies. If it is determined the patient looks to have a high NIHSS and concerns for LVOT (Large Vessel Occulusion) a CTA of the head and neck can be considered. Perfusion studies and advanced MR imaging should be discussed with consulting neurologists. Clinicians should also remember to follow their specific institutional guidelines for imaging studies if the stroke neurologist is unavailable or there is a delay in consultation. LKW along with CTA and CT perfusion of the head in ischemic stroke patients can sometimes give us a picture of the infarct core with surrounding penumbra (ratio). If circumstances are faborable, it may allow the pursuit of a thrombectomy. The current guidelines are for thrombectomy within 6 hours, but consideration upwards of 24 and beyond in the right patient population. Please see the DAWN and DIFFUSE 3 trials. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.027974 ThrombectomyGenerally the neurointerventionalist does not pursue thrombectomy beyond the MCA (M2 region), sometimes depending on anatomy. ASPECT ScoreThe ASPECT Score (Alberta Stroke Program Early CT Score) determines the volume of subcortical and cortical infarct involvement via perfusion study. Generally the score provided is 1-10. Anything less than a 6 portends a poor outcome. More early changes seen on CT suggest poorer outcomes from stroke. Patients with scores >8 have a better chance for an independent outcome. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.016745 IV TPAIV TPA with thrombectomy is safe. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.109.568451 TNK appears to have the same efficacy as TPA. Single dose IV push over 5 minute infusion. Easier and faster delivery of TNK. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.025080 Institutions may have different absolute and relative contraindications to TPA. Practice should be guided by institutional protocol and consultation with neurology. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STR.0000000000000086 Secondary PreventionSecondary prevention of stroke with the aid of DAPT (Dual Antiplatelet Therapy) - usually Plavix and Aspirin. Patients with cerebra ischemia are at high risk for early recurrent stroke, and use of DAPT for secondary prevention is reflected in current guidelines. Good BP and lipid management is paramount for 2nd stroke prevention. https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/epub/10.1161/STROKEAHA.119.028400 Scoring SystemsHAS-BLED score for major bleeding risk. CHA2DS2-VASc Score for artrial fibrillation stroke risk. Anti-thrombotic Therapy & Elderly PatientsChoosing antithrombotic therapy for elderly patients with atrial fibrillation who are at risk for falls.https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/484991 Fall risk and anticoagulatoin for atrial fibrillation in the elderly: A delicate balance. https://www.ccjm.org/content/ccjom/84/1/35.full.pdf

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Round 29 (Weakness)

EM Clerkship

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 1, 2022 31:35

Initial Assessment: Obtain Vitals and blood glucose level Time of onset (important for tPA/TNK vs thrombectomy) Neurologic and Cardiac Examination / NIHSS do not delay head CT to complete NIHSS, can always finish after CT Assess contraindications for tPA Workup: Labs: CBC, CMP, Troponin, Coags, EtOH, bedside accucheck CXR and UA (infections can cause recrudescence […]

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Posterior Stroke

NGMC Continuing Medical Education

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 8, 2021 61:35

Enduring CME will expire on 12/7/2023. Objectives: 1. Review Anatomy and Physiology of the Posterior Cerebral Vasculature and Territory 2. Recognize assessment findings specific to Posterior Stroke using current tools (FAST ED, MEND, NIHSS) 3. Examine additional signs and symptoms that can indicate Posterior Stroke 4. Associate injury patterns or risk factors that would increase suspicion of Posterior Stroke 5. Identify posterior stroke mimics 6. Recognize concerns for management and quality of life implications for posterior stroke patients (herniation, falls, etc) Disclosures: - There is no commercial support for this activity - The speakers have disclosed that there are no relevant personal or financial relationships Accreditation and Designation: The Northeast Georgia Medical Center & Health System, Inc. is accredited by the Medical Association of Georgia to provide continuing medical education for physicians. The Northeast Georgia Medical Center & Health System, Inc. designates this live activity for a maximum of 1 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit(s) TM. Physicians should only claim credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.

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The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of the NIHSS: Time for a Change?

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 31, 2021 10:44

The NIHSS remains the fundamental assessment of stroke severity. However, some have called for modifying the NIHSS to better capture disability. Is it time to change the NIHSS?

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What Else Beyond the NIHSS Should We Be Doing Clinically?

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 24, 2021 10:47

The NIHSS was a research tool meant to limit variability and provide uniform quantifiable assessments of stroke severity. As the de facto standard for stroke exams and scores, it has withstood the test of time. However, there is more to the assessment of acute stroke severity and this podcast takes a deep dive into what else we need to be doing besides the NIHSS.

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Stroke Alert April 2021

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 15, 2021 21:20

On Episode 3 of the Stroke Alert Podcast, host Dr. Negar Asdaghi highlights two featured articles from the April 2021 issue of Stroke. This episode also features a conversation with Dr. Simon Nagel, from Heidelberg University in Germany, to discuss his article “Predictors for Failure of Early Neurological Improvement After Successful Thrombectomy in the Anterior Circulation.” Dr. Negar Asdaghi: 1) Is Andexanet a cost-effective treatment for the reversal of coagulopathy in factor Xa-associated intracranial hemorrhage? 2) Are statins safe and efficacious in secondary prevention of stroke in the elderly population? 3) What are the predictors of futile recanalization amongst successfully treated patients with endovascular therapy? We have the answers to the above and much more in today's podcast. You're listening to Stroke Alert Podcast. Stay with us. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: From the Editorial Board of Stroke, welcome to the Stroke Alert Podcast. My name is Negar Asdaghi. I'm an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and your host for the monthly Stroke Alert Podcast. For the April 2021 issue of Stroke, we have an exciting program today where I have the privilege of interviewing Dr. Simon Nagel from Heidelberg University in Germany on predictors of failure of early neurological improvement or futile recanalization after successful thrombectomy. But first I want to review these two interesting articles. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Factor Xa inhibitors, such as apixaban, edoxaban and rivaroxaban, are commonly used for prevention of ischemic stroke and systemic embolism in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Bleeding is a serious adverse consequence of treatment with anticoagulants, including factor Xa inhibitors, with intracranial hemorrhage representing the most devastating form of such adverse events. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Anticoagulant-associated intracranial hemorrhage typically results in larger hematoma volumes, higher risk of expansion, and worst clinical outcomes as compared to their spontaneous counterparts and requires immediate reversal of coagulopathy. Andexanet alfa is a recombinant modified factor Xa protein which is an effective antidote to reverse this coagulopathy, though it comes with an increased risk of thromboembolic events, either from Andexanet itself or delayed or lack of resumption of anticoagulation in the setting of intracranial hemorrhage. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: It is important to note that the estimated cost of Andexanet is between $25-50,000 US dollars, depending on the standard versus high dose used, and this medication is currently not available in many countries, including in Canada, and even in the United States, it's still not accessible in many centers mainly due to its high cost. Now, when Andexanet is not available, the non-specific antidote of prothrombin complex concentrate, or PCC, is used, carrying an approximate cost of $4-8,000 US dollars, depending on the dosage used. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: PCC, which is a combination of various clotting factors, together with protein C and protein S, have a limited efficacy and reversal of Xa inhibitors coagulopathy. In the absence of randomized control trials to directly compare Andexanet to PCC, there remains a significant gap in knowledge with regards to comparative efficacy, adverse events, and cost-effectiveness of these therapies for life-threatening bleeding, specifically intracranial hemorrhage, in the setting of Xa inhibitor use. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: In the current issue of the journal, Dr. Andrew Micieli and colleagues from the Division of Neurology, Department of Medicine, Universities of Toronto and Calgary, in Canada, did a comparative analysis between Andexanet and PCC in a study titled “Economic Evaluation of Andexanet Versus Prothrombin Complex Concentrate for Factor Xa-Associated Intracranial Hemorrhage.” Using a patient population on chronic factor Xa inhibitor treatment, when presenting with an intracranial hemorrhage, the authors applied a probabilistic Markov model over a lifetime horizon for each patient to evaluate the cost and benefits if either Andexanet or PCC was administered to reverse the coagulopathy. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Estimates of outcomes, dosing, and administration protocols for Andexanet were derived from the ANNEXA-4 study and from the UPRATE study for the PCC. These are two previously published large cohorts of treatment for these agents, respectively. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, what they found was an overall reduction in the occurrence of fatal intracranial hemorrhage with Andexanet therapy, estimated around 18%, as compared to PCC, estimated at 34%, specifically if the antidote was administered in the first cycle, which is the first 30 days following intracranial hemorrhage. This, of course, came at a cost of a higher thromboembolic event rate measured as composite outcome of myocardial infarction, TIA stroke, deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism of approximately 10% in the Andexanet-treated group as compared to 5% in the PCC-treated group. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Now, the cost analysis of the study is very interesting. The authors found that Andexanet, for its incremental effectiveness in gaining quality-adjusted life year, had an incremental cost over PCC. This cost-effectiveness ratio was close to $220,000 US dollar per quality-adjusted life year gain for Andexanet. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: And as such, as things stand today, this therapy is not cost-effective and represents low value for reversal of factor Xa–associated intracranial hemorrhage over the standard of care, which is PCC. So, this study provides an important insight, not only for the physicians, but also for health policymakers, as they critically evaluate the merits of Andexanet therapy compared to the current standard of care. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, moving on now from oral anticoagulants to statin therapies and other medication commonly used in the secondary prevention of ischemic stroke, the second article we will discuss today in our podcast looks at the use of statins poststroke in the elderly population. About a third of stroke patients are over the age of 80, and with the aging population and increased life expectancy, this proportion is estimated to double by year 2050. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Stroke survivors who are over the age of 80 have increased 30-day and one-year mortality rates and remain at higher risk for recurrent cardiovascular events as compared to their younger counterparts. Statin therapy has been shown to reduce the risk of composite cardiovascular events in stroke survivors, but randomized data regarding their safety and efficacy in the elderly population is limited. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Treatment with statin is not without its own challenges in the elderly population. These patients are more likely to be on multiple medications that can interact with statins, and there's also some evidence that the frail population may be more prone to statin side effects such as muscle pain, risk of rhabdomyolysis, increased blood glucose levels, increased risk of diabetes, and liver problems that have all been reported in the setting of statin use. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: In this issue of the journal, Drs. Lefeber and colleagues from the Department of Geriatrics in Utrecht University in Utrecht, Netherlands, study this subject in their paper titled “Statins After Ischemic Stroke in the Oldest: A Cohort Study Using the Clinical Practice Research Datalink Database.” This was a retrospective analysis of over 5,900 patients aged 65 years and older who were hospitalized and then discharged for a first ischemic stroke during a 17-year study period from 1999 to 2016 who were not on statin prescription in the year prior to their index hospitalization. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: The authors compared the primary outcome, which was a composite of recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular-related mortality, within the elderly patients, those over the age of 80, to the younger population, those over 65 but under 80 years of age, based on the number of years that they had a statin prescription poststroke. That is comparing at least two years of statin prescription time with no statin treatment or less than two years of prescription time compared to no treatment at all. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, what they found was that 53% of their population were actually over the age of 80, and in over half of these elderly patients, a statin was prescribed within 90 days of the index date. And not surprisingly, 38% of this elderly population had moderate to severe frailty, an index that has been linked to statin intolerance and its common myalgia side effect. Now, in terms of their main finding, more than two years of statin prescription compared to no statin prescription was significantly associated with a lower risk of the primary endpoint for both the over and the under 80 age groups. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: This association remained true in their adjusted model, not only for the primary outcome, but also for all-cause mortality rates, which was significantly lower in the statin-treated patients. After a correction for the mortality rate of close to 24% during the first two years, the number needed to treat for reduction of composite recurrent stroke, myocardial infarction, and cardiovascular-related mortality was 64 and the number needed to treat for reduction of all-cause mortality was 19 in the group over 80 on a statin prescription during a median follow-up of 3.9 years. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, in the absence of data from randomized controlled trials, this study provides reassuring results regarding the efficacy of statins in reduction of cardiovascular events in the patients aged 80 and older, keeping in mind that a third of the elderly population in the study was significantly frail, at risk for development of possible statin-related adverse effects. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Much has changed in the field of reperfusion therapies since the publication of the positive results of the thrombectomy trials in 2015. Advances in patient selection processes, rapid access to advanced neuroimaging, the use of newer generations of thrombectomy devices, and improvement in systems of care have all played important roles in the growing success of endovascular therapy. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: But even with today's rigorous selection criteria and fast thrombectomy timelines, there remains a significant proportion of endovascularly treated patients in whom the successful radiographic recanalization do not translate into early neurological improvement. In our previous podcast, we report how the odds of favorable outcomes with thrombectomy decreases with an increase in the number of retrieval attempts during the procedure amongst successfully recanalized patients. Today, we dive deeper and look into other independent variables that may predict odds of futile recanalization. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Joining me now is Dr. Simon Nagel from Department of Neurology at Heidelberg University Hospital in Germany, who is the senior author of the study titled “Predictors for Failure of Early Neurological Improvement After Successful Thrombectomy in the Anterior Circulation.” Good morning, Simon, and thank you for joining us. Dr. Simon Nagel: Good morning, or even good evening, from Germany. Thank you, Negar. It's a pleasure to be here, of course, especially in these times when you don't get to personally speak to a lot of international colleagues. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: That's great, Simon. Can you start us off, please, with some background on futile recanalization? What do we know about this medical work, and what prompted you to look into this topic in more detail? Dr. Simon Nagel: I guess, in most studies, futile recanalization is defined as a technically successful recanalization by a TICI score of 2b upwards, but an outcome on day 90 of only three to six points on the modified Rankin scale. And many papers have examined a selected number of parameters for the association with futile recanalization being either clinical, radiological, laboratory or procedural, which is why we wanted to be very comprehensive in our approach by including 38 different variables from the above-mentioned spectrum in our own analysis from our monocentric registry in Heidelberg. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Perfect, so a very important concept to keep in mind in light of the increased demand to perform endovascular therapy. So, can you tell us, you alluded to it, but can tell us a bit more about the study design, the population you studied, and specifically why you choose failure of early neurological improvement at the time of discharge as opposed to that more conventional outcome measure of modified Rankin scale at day 90 poststroke? Dr. Simon Nagel: That's a good point, Negar, and you're right, we did maybe choose an unconventional end point since the definition of early neurological improvement is usually based on the NIHSS at 24 hours, but this study was driven from a very clinical perspective, that is the one from the stroke physician on the ward who is receiving the patient after the procedure, after all the acute decisions have been made. And then we have to do our best during the following days managing the complications, the deficit, and finding out why the stroke happened in the first place, until the patient is then either discharged home or back to the referring facility or to a normal board or to rehabilitation. Dr. Simon Nagel: But a considerable amount of patients, we found, did not improve until this discharge, although the procedure was a technical success. So some reasons for that are obvious, but some of them are not, and we wanted to find more about this, especially since early neurological improvement has been proposed as a surrogate for good outcome later on. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Right. So we're very excited, Simon, to hear about the main study results. What were some of the predictors of failure of early neurological improvement in your study, and were you at all surprised by any of those developments? Dr. Simon Nagel: A lot of known factors that have been previously described to show an association with early neurological improvement or failure of that were found in our univariate analysis, namely 21 of 38, but only a few remained independent predictors after selecting with the elastic net approach and logistic regression modeling. Some of them are obvious by definition, which is symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Then, of course, the ASPECTS on follow-up was a predictor, and this obviously beat the baseline ASPECTS and also potentially the collateral score, which was significant in univariate analysis, but we included also over 20% of patients with a premorbid disability of more than two on the Rankin scale so premorbid condition was an independent predictor. Dr. Simon Nagel: We had eight patients with end stage renal failure in our analysis, so we did include that as well, and dialysis is a very strong predictor of failure of early neurological improvement. But also, admission glucose was, so higher levels of that, and then procedural parameters like reaching thrombolysis. So, if you do imply this, this was a factor that was positively associated with early neurological improvement. And then, also, the time from groin puncture to final recanalization was associated, so the longer it took, and this obviously beat also the stent retriever attempts in the analysis, the longer it took, the more likely that it was that failure of early neurological improvement was observed. And last but not least, general anesthesia was associated with that, but there is a sense of bias in this analysis because we have a SOP that we generally perform awake sedation. That means only patients that are not eligible for that, that are not doing well, will be treated under general anesthesia, so this variable has to be interpreted with caution. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, very interesting, Simon. I want to emphasize to our listeners that in your study, 20%, that is one in five successfully recanalized patient, did not clinically improve post-thrombectomy up until discharge. This is a considerable percentage to keep in mind. Now, in our day-to-day practice, many of us also accept a TICI 2b as a measure of a successful recanalization. In your study, you included a more rigorous definition of successful recanalization. How do you think your results would have changed had you included those who have achieved a TICI 2b, and why did you exclude that population? Dr. Simon Nagel: According to the mTICI definition, 2b means that more than half of the previously occluded vessel is reperfused, which also means that almost 50% is not. That might have been a success in the advent of thrombectomy and when this was defined in 2013, but I don't think it's adequate to call this a successful recanalization these days. When this was re-defined by David Liebeskind in 2018 with a eTICI score, 2b is still not considered anything more than two-third of the territory, and only 2c is a nearly complete reperfusion, leaving just 10% of the vessel territory occluded or not reperfused. Dr. Simon Nagel: This is why we thought it is a more appropriate definition of successful thrombectomy, and this is what we think should be attempted in day-to-day practice. In our cohort, almost 50% achieve TICI 2c or 3, and if we would have included 2b, 83% of patients would have achieved that. I can't tell you what our analysis would have looked like if we included 2b, it might have been different, but I can tell you that that would require a new analysis of the data. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Yes, and we keep that in mind for sure that the new way of definition is to keep 2c or better. So Simon, I agree that definitely your study has given us a clear roadmap regarding early outcome expectations in patients undergoing thrombectomy. What should be our final take-away from your study? Dr. Simon Nagel: I guess, before I can tell you, you have to bear in mind that this is a monocentric retrospective analysis, hence, there is bias to be expected, and choosing a different definition of early neurological improvement then may be useful, might have given us a different result. It is also important to be clear from what perspective you are looking at the data. For example, this analysis does not necessarily help with predictors for outcome that help you make a decision if you should treat the patient or not since we included many parameters that are not yet available at that point in time when you need to make the decision to treat the patient. Dr. Simon Nagel: But, I think it's fair to say that you should, according to our results, apply thrombolysis whenever indicated, that you should be as quick as possible with your procedure, and that you should manage blood sugar well, as well as other medical complications, and that you should not expect too much early improvement in case the patient has a premorbid condition or if the motor cortex is involved, which was also a significant outcome, which I didn't mention earlier, and, of course, by definition, if symptomatic hemorrhage occurs. Dr. Simon Nagel: Hemorrhagic transformations, on the other side, do not seem to independently influence failure of early neurological improvement. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Dr. Simon Nagel, it's always a pleasure speaking with you, and thank you for being with us. And this concludes our podcast for the April 2021 issue of Stroke. And as I leave you today, I want to remind us all that for every minute left untreated a brain under an ischemic attack loses an average of 1.9 million neurons. So whether you're just starting off or you're a well-established clinician or researcher in the field of vascular neurology, your work and that of your colleagues are part of a quest to save the most valuable commodity of human life, which is the brain, and, for that, we're proud to review your work in stroke and highlight the best in vascular neurology in our future podcasts. So until our next podcast, stay alert with Stroke Alert.

Stroke Alert March 2021

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 12, 2021 17:08

On Episode 2 of the Stroke Alert podcast, host Dr. Negar Asdaghi highlights two featured articles from the March 2021 issue of Stroke. This episode also features a conversation with Dr. Joan Montaner from Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona, Spain, to discuss his article “D-Dimer as Predictor of Large Vessel Occlusion in Acute Ischemic Stroke.” Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Can your microRNA profile predict your future risk of stroke? Is stroke that wake-up call to finally live a healthier lifestyle, better diet, exercise more, and stop smoking? Can a simple blood test improve our clinical predictive models for presence of a large vessel occlusion in patients with suspected ischemic stroke? We have the answers and much more in today's podcast. You're listening to Stroke Alert. Stay with us. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: From the Editorial Board of Stroke, welcome to the Stroke Alert Podcast. My name is Negar Asdaghi. I'm an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, and the host of the monthly Stroke Alert Podcast. In today's podcast, I'm going to interview the senior author of the study on the values of D-dimer and predicting the presence of large vessel occlusion in stroke. But first with these two articles. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: DNA noncoding sequences and introns, once thought to represent the, quote, junk DNA, quote, have been found to play an important role in the modulation of gene expression at the post transcriptional level through coding for regulatory molecules, such as microRNAs, or miRNA. Whether the presence of certain miRNAs can signal a future risk of development of stroke is unknown. In their paper titled “Circulatory MicroRNAs as Potential Biomarkers for Stroke Risk: The Rotterdam Study,” Dr. Michelle Mens and colleagues from the Department of Neurology, University Medical Center, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, discuss their findings related to microRNA samples collected between 2002 and 2005 from over 1900 stroke-free participants of the Rotterdam Study. Participants were assessed for incident stroke through continuous monitoring of medical records until January 1, 2016. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: At baseline, using next-generation sequencing, they measured expression levels of over 2083 miRNAs in plasma samples. During a mean follow-up of close to 10 years, the incidence of stroke was 7% in their study population, and they found, in total, 39 miRNAs were at least nominally related with that incidence of stroke. In their fully adjusted model, they found significant association between expression level of three particular microRNAs and risk of stroke, with the hazard ratio ranging between 1.1 to 2.6. Interestingly, the area under the curve for the longitudinal predictive models improved when the miRNA data was added to the vascular risk factor model. And in conclusion, they found miRNA 6124, 5196-5p and 4292 were associated with future risk of stroke in their population. The elevated levels of these miRNAs may serve as plasma biomarkers for predicting future risk of stroke in combination with other known vascular risk factors for stroke. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, speaking of vascular risk factors, let's move on to our second paper for today's podcast. There's a growing emphasis on adherence with pharmaceutical interventions, such as diabetic and blood pressure treatments, statin therapy, to control the risk factors for stroke and prevent recurrent vascular events. All the while, the non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as smoking cessation, diet control, and increased physical activity, seem to represent the somewhat easy or implied aspect of our secondary preventive efforts. But how well are stroke survivors doing with regards to making these healthy lifestyle modifications? In the March issue of Stroke, Dr. Chelsea Liu and colleagues from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health presented their findings on lifestyle and behavioral changes pertaining to cardiovascular health in the study titled, “Change in Life's Simple 7 Measure of Cardiovascular Health After Incident Stroke: The REGARDS Study.” Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, this was a population-based, epidemiological study of over 7,000 stroke-free participants between 2003 and 2007, who had data on Life's Simple 7, what the author called “LS7 measures,” which studied seven different domains. Four of them behavioral, including smoking, diet, physical activity, body mass index, and three medication-controlled, including blood pressure, total cholesterol, and fasting glucose, both at study entry and their follow-up visit. At which point, either they did not have a stroke or had an ischemic stroke and were included if that stroke had happened more than one year before the follow-up visit. And so the study authors hypothesized that those with a stroke would have had a significant improvement in their Life's Simple 7 data poststroke as compared to the stroke-free participants. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: But what they found was completely the opposite. At 10 years follow-up, a total of 149 patients had suffered a stroke in their study. On a scale of zero to 14 at study entry, all participants scored low or relatively low in these seven simple measures, but those participants who would ultimately suffer a stroke scored significantly lower at baseline. What was alarming, though, was that after adjusting for all confounders, at follow-up, participants who had experienced an ischemic stroke showed a significantly further decline in their total LS7 score at 10-year follow-up. And the greatest declines were noted in behavioral domains, most notably physical activity and diet scores. The authors noted a non-significant improvement, in other words, improvement in weight in the BMI score among stroke survivors, but they caution that that may indeed be actually related to muscle loss, a downstream effect of decreased physical activity poststroke, rather than representing active dietary interventions with weight loss. So, in summary, this important paper highlights, on a population level, the urgent need for behavioral interventions to improve secondary prevention after a stroke event up and beyond our efforts to improve medication adherence. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So now moving on from secondary preventative measures to the acute phase, our next paper discusses ways in which we can improve our diagnostic accuracy in the acute setting. Identification of large vessel occlusions is the first step in determining patients' eligibility for endovascular thrombectomy, a highly effective treatment to improve outcomes in acute ischemic stroke. But without vascular imaging, which may not be readily available in the small or community hospitals, the decision to transfer patients to thrombectomy-capable centers is entirely dependent on clinical scales, which, as we all know, may have suboptimal sensitivity and specificity. So the question is, could a simple blood test improve the predictive capabilities of our current clinical scales for presence of a target LVO, or large vessel occlusion? Joining me now is Dr. Joan Montaner from Neurovascular Research Laboratory at the Universitat Autònoma in Barcelona, who is the senior author of the study titled “D-Dimer as Predictor of Large Vessel Occlusion in Acute Ischemic Stroke.” Good morning, Joan, all the way from the sunny Florida to the beautiful Barcelona. Good to have you with us, and thank you for joining us. Dr. Joan Montaner: Hello. Nice to talk with you on blood biomarkers for stroke management. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Thank you, Joan. Your study touches on the importance of improving the ways in which the systems of care are set up in triage and transfer of patients with thrombectomy-capable centers. Can you please tell us briefly about the stroke systems of care in Catalonia where you practice and where your study is based out of? And what clinical scales are currently used for transfer of patients with suspected acute stroke to a comprehensive stroke center? Dr. Joan Montaner: Yes, Catalonia, it's a region of about 7.5 million inhabitants. And when we did this study, most of the comprehensive stroke centers were located in Barcelona itself, in the capital. So it's true that there are several areas of the region that are far away from Barcelona. It took more than two hours to bring some patients from those distant regions to Barcelona. That's why we began to use these clinical scales that you are talking about. Mainly they are RACE, it's like a simplification of the NIHSS subscale. And, in fact, a large study RACE card that was presented last year in the European Stroke Conference was done to try to see if we could, by using these scales, RACE, select the right patients to come directly to the thrombectomy centers instead of going to the closest hospital. But, unfortunately, the results were neutral. So, we were a little bit disappointed, and we think, as you were saying, that these neurological scales are suboptimal, probably not enough sensitivity and specificity for identifying LVO. That's why we think that these biomarkers could improve the accuracy of those scales. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Perfect. I totally agree with you. And now, before you tell us about the biomarkers, can you just briefly tell us about the Stroke-Chip study, your study population, and what prompted you to look at these various biomarkers that you addressed in the paper? Dr. Joan Montaner: Stroke-Chip was a lot, it was really a massive collaborative effort among all the public hospitals in this network here in Catalonia. We were able to collect more than 1,300 patients in this particular study that we are talking about. Dr. Anna Ramos-Pachón and Elena Cancio were leading the analysis on the relation of these biomarkers with LVO. But I have to say that this was not the original intention of our study. Really, and perhaps we were naive at that time, we were looking for biomarkers to differentiate ischemia from hemorrhagic strokes or from stroke mimicking conditions to try to give TPA or TNK in the ambulance. But, as I was saying, perhaps that was a little bit naive, and we know how difficult that would be and perhaps with some liabilities. That's why it came this idea of, "Well, if we use those markers, not for giving a drug in the ambulance, but for doing triage and sending the patient to the right hospital, that could be more simple and more useful even." Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Thank you very much. Can you briefly tell us about the study? What were your inclusion criteria? Dr. Joan Montaner: Well, in this study, we selected all consecutive acute stroke patients attending the stroke unit of all these hospitals. We were including all stroke suspicions, if their symptoms onset happened within six hours. So, it's really hyperacute patients. And we were able to collect, like this, more than 1,300 patients. And then at the hospital, with the angio CT or duplex, we were able to categorize those with LVO, and we measured a panel of different biomarkers in the blood stream of those patients and trying to associate which of these markers were related with having or not having an LVO. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Very interesting. So tell us, please, your study's main finding? Dr. Joan Montaner: The main finding, what we liked more, let's say, of our results was that some of those markers, specifically NT-proBNP and D-dimer, were really high among patients with a large vessel occlusion. When we combined these results, for example, having high levels of D-dimer, those patients above fourth quartile of D-dimer with more stroke severity, patients with NIH of more than 10, the accuracy was really good. It was very specific, 93% specificity, 34% sensitivity, to predict an LVO. So this means that without almost any mistake, you select more than one third of the patients that have an LVO, that could be very useful. To bring those patients, we were talking from far away of these thrombectomy centers, to the right place. And perhaps we could be doing a thrombectomy one or two hours before with these technologies. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Perfect. So basically, just to reiterate what you're saying, is that D-dimer, as non-specific as it is and as important as it is to note that it can be elevated in the setting of aging or increase NIH Stroke Scale severity, this increase in D-dimer noted in patients with LVO was just not a factor of just age simply or increased severity of the stroke scale. Can you tell us about your multivariate analysis and what other factors you adjusted for in your final model? Dr. Joan Montaner: You are right that D-dimer can be modified by many things, as you were saying. That's why we took a lot of care about the multivariate analysis and all factors, all clinical factors that were related with LVO were included in the model. And finally, only eight NIH Stroke Scale scores D-dimer and the vast history of atrial fibrillation were included in the model. Odds ratio for D-dimer was 1.59 that I think it's quite acceptable. And it's true that in that model, NT-proBNP was not included anymore, probably because it's related with a fee. So, that's something interesting if perhaps in the ambulance, you don't know about the story, the history of a patient, of a fee, we could use NT-proBNP, so I think this opens the possibility of using different clinical neurological scales biomarkers in combination to make the prediction of LVO. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Yes. Very, very exciting results for sure. So what is our main takeaway from your study? Are we thinking that D-dimer or a particular level of elevations of D-dimer will one day become the, quote, Troponin equivalent of LVO for stroke? Dr. Joan Montaner: Well, it sounds nice, but I know it's several technical issues here. You are right that there is variability among labs in the measurement of D-dimer so now what we are doing is really, in a prospective study called BIO-FAST in the south of Spain, in Seville, in a large network of ambulances, we are measuring D-dimer, but in a rapid fashion with a rapid point of care test in the ambulance itself. We think that we are not going to have a magic biomarker. Not that Troponin you are talking about. Probably we need to combine it with others. We think that the marker of brain damage would add a lot on top of D-dimer, probably D-dimer is very good for the clot burden, but we think other markers could improve the accuracy of the test. And we are measuring them together with these. Our dream would be really to have cost utility study in the future and to see if really we are able to randomize patients based on these biomarkers in the ambulance, will have an impact on outcome if we are able really to do thrombectomies much faster. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Well, we certainly look forward to covering your future studies on this topic of biomarkers. Dr. Joan Montaner, thank you for joining us and congratulations on your work. Dr. Joan Montaner: Thanks a lot. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: And this concludes our podcast. Don't forget to check online for the full list of publications, including two papers on the state of pediatric thrombectomy and a study on the association between stroke and subsequent risk of suicide that are published online ahead of their presentations at the International Stroke Conference. Until our next podcast, stay alert with Stroke Alert.

Stroke Alert February 2021

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 2, 2021 19:39

On Episode 1 of the Stroke Alert podcast, host Dr. Negar Asdaghi highlights two featured articles from the February 2021 issue of Stroke. This episode also features a conversation with Drs. Fabian Flottmann and Matthew Maros from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Medical Center, in Hamburg, Germany, to discuss their article “Good Clinical Outcome Decreases With Number of Retrieval Attempts in Stroke Thrombectomy: Beyond the First-Pass Effect.” Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Are women more likely to suffer from stroke than men? Are oral anticoagulants safe in atrial fibrillation patients with a prior history of GI bleeding? Does pregnancy increase the risk of intracerebral hemorrhage in patients with cavernous malformation? Does the number of retrieval attempts during thrombectomy affect the outcomes of stroke patients in whom successful reperfusion is achieved? In today's podcast, we address some of these topics and much more. You're listening to the Stroke Alert Podcast. Stay with us. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: From the Editorial Board of Stroke, welcome to the Stroke Alert Podcast. My name is Negar Asdaghi. I'm an Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, and the host of the monthly Stroke Alert Podcast. We're starting our podcasts with the February 2021 issue of the journal, which also features a special section on Go Red for Women stroke, a comprehensive American Heart Association platform to improve the vascular health of women globally. I hope you enjoy it. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Cavernous malformations or cavernomas are angiographically called vascular abnormalities, which can pose an increased risk for intracerebral hemorrhage. Cavernomas can have diverse neurological presentations ranging from mild neurological symptoms to seizures, but in some cases may remain entirely asymptomatic and are diagnosed incidentally as part of routine neuroimaging completed for other reasons. Earlier studies had reported higher rates of intracerebral hemorrhage from cavernomas during pregnancy, and have postulated a hormone-related increased expression of vascular endothelial growth factor or basic fibroblasts growth factors to explain this increased rate. Subsequent studies, however, have failed to demonstrate either progesterone or estrogen receptors in cavernomas. So the question is, should presence of cavernous malformation, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic, influence the reproductive choices of women of childbearing age? In the “Influence of Pregnancy on Hemorrhage Risk in Women With Cerebral and Spinal Cavernous Malformations,” Dr. Nycole Joseph and colleagues from the Departments of Neurology and Neurosurgery from Mayo Clinic Rochester in Minnesota evaluated 365 pregnancies and 160 women with brain or spinal cord cavernomas. They found that during the cumulative 402 years of study follow-up, the risk of hemorrhage amongst non-pregnant patients in the study was 10.4% per year. They found only four patients with clinical hemorrhage during pregnancy, all of which resulted in the cavernomas being first diagnosed. None of the hemorrhages occurred during delivery, and all of the four patients had functionally independent outcomes by three months. Importantly, they found that no patient who became pregnant after the diagnosis of cavernous malformation had a hemorrhage while pregnant. They had a total of 33 pregnancies in the study, including one patient who had previously bled during a prior pregnancy and also patients with brainstem lesions and those who presented with hemorrhage at diagnosis. Both of these are factors for hemorrhage in cavernomas. So, in summary, in this prospective study, pregnancy did not increase the risk of hemorrhage in women with a known brain or spinal cord cavernous malformation. And the vaginal delivery was safe in this population. The authors concluded that the presence of cavernous malformation should not influence the reproductive choices in women or their type of delivery. Now, speaking of hemorrhage risk, let's move on to our next paper on anticoagulation therapy in patients with atrial fibrillation. The decision to start anticoagulants for atrial fibrillation can often be challenging in those who have suffered from a prior gastrointestinal bleeding. Prior studies have shown that the non–vitamin K antagonist oral anticoagulants, or NOACs, can carry a comparable and, in some cases, even a higher risk of GI bleed than warfarin. It should be noted that patients with a prior GI bleed were generally excluded from the pivotal randomized control trials that approved NOACs. And importantly, the risk of bleeding may also be higher in certain race/ethnic groups, such as the Asian population. In the article titled “Non–Vitamin K Antagonist Oral Anticoagulants in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation and Prior Gastrointestinal Bleeding,” Dr. Soonil Kwon from the Department of Internal Medicine, Seoul National University Hospital, in Seoul, Republic of Korea, studied over 42,000 anticoagulant–naïve patients with nonvalvular atrial fibrillation and prior GI bleed from 2010 to 2018 as part of a retrospective, observational cohort study in Korea. They evaluated the risk of ischemic stroke, major bleeding and combined outcomes in this population. What they found was that, not surprisingly, close to 60% of patients were initiated on a NOAC, with rivaroxaban leading dabigatran, apixaban, followed by edoxaban in terms of frequency of agents used. Just over 40% of patients were started on warfarin. Now, over the study follow-up, when they looked at the safety by looking at major bleeding rate and effectiveness by assessing ischemic stroke rates, NOACs generally did better as compared to warfarin, resulting in 39% risk reduction in recurrent stroke, 27% risk reduction in major bleeding and 34% risk reduction in composite outcomes as compared to warfarin. And the rates of upper and lower GI bleed were similar in NOACs versus warfarin users. NOACs still did better as compared to warfarin amongst patients who suffered from GI bleed as they had a lower transfusion rates and shorter hospital stay. NOACs were also associated with lower risks of fatal clinical outcomes except for fatal GI bleed. So the authors concluded that contrary to some of the prior reports, NOACs may be a better option than warfarin for stroke patients and atrial fibrillation patients with prior GI bleed. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Moving from secondary prevention to acute stroke therapy, our last article discusses how the technical details of endovascular thrombectomy may affect the outcomes in patients with ischemic stroke. So, achieving a successful reperfusion is the cornerstone of improving clinical outcomes in patients undergoing endovascular therapy, but how many retrieval attempts should be made by the interventionist to obtain that desired successful reperfusion is still unclear. Importantly, if successful reperfusion is ultimately achieved, it's still not clear if there's a relationship between the number of retrieval attempts and favorable clinical outcomes. Joining me now are doctors Fabian Flottmann and Matthew Maros from the Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Neuroradiology, University Medical Center, in Hamburg, Germany, who are the first and senior authors of the study titled “Good Clinical Outcome Decreases With Number of Retrieval Attempts in Stroke Thrombectomy: Beyond the First-Pass Effect.” Good morning from Florida, and good afternoon, Fabian and Máté, in Germany. Thank you for joining us. Dr. Fabian Flottmann: Thank you very much, Negar, for the nice introduction. Good afternoon from Hamburg. At the moment, it's really, really cold here. It's -4 degrees Celsius. I can't translate it to Fahrenheit, but it's pretty cold, let me assure you. And thank you very much for having us today. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: It's great to have you. So I start with Fabian. This is a very interesting and timely study as we're learning more that the way in which we achieve a goal in acute stroke reperfusion therapies is almost as important as the goal itself. Can you tell us a bit about the background of your study, Fabian, and why you felt the need to look at these granular details, which unfold inside the angio suite during endovascular thrombectomy? Dr. Fabian Flottmann: Of course, that's a question that's highly relevant for a neurointerventionalist. This research topic developed from our clinical practice, because quite often we have the situation in the angiography suite, where we try to open a vessel, a patient with a large vessel occlusion, and everything is very easy if the vessel opens after one retrieval attempt, because everybody is happy and you can end the procedure. But what happens if the vessel doesn't open? Then you try again. And what happens if the vessel doesn't open? You try it again, and so on and so on. So the question is, when should you stop? And we ask ourselves, are these maneuvers that we do, like three or four or five maneuvers, are they as successful or as beneficial for the patient as the first maneuver? We did an analysis of our data in Hamburg, and that led to the first paper that we published in Stroke in 2018. And our finding was that the third or fourth retrieval, they were successful in achieving recanalization, but the clinical outcome of those patients was not as good as those patients that you opened with just one retrieval attempt. That was the first finding that we had with our data and our center. And then in the same year, the first pass effect was described. The first pass effect, being the finding that the first retrieval attempt is the most important for the patient. This data was very interesting. And then there were other publications that said, no, there's no connection between the number of retrieval attempts and the clinical outcome. So, as always, in science, when there's more than one opinion, things begin to get interesting. And we said we want to investigate this further. And we decided to do a multicenter study with more patients. And we decided to look at each retrieval attempt separately, to not look just at a first retrieval attempt versus the others, but at each retrieval attempt. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So interesting indeed. Please tell us, before you tell us about the study findings, about the German Stroke Registry. How many years has the registry been active, and how many centers are involved, and please walk us through your study population and the selection process of your study? Dr. Fabian Flottmann: Germans Stroke Registry. It's a systematic observational registry study from Germany. It's academic, it's independent, prospective, multi-central, there are 25 centers who participate in this registry. And its goal is to have a systematic evaluation of endovascular stroke treatment in Germany. There are stroke centers from all around the country who consecutively enroll their patients. All patients with an intention to treat in the angiography suite are included. All the patient data are collected at the center and all these data are then centralized and we have a central quality check. And what is important that we also try to include the clinical follow-up information for every patient at day 90. So, the modified Rankin Scale at day 90 is also included. And in our work, we did an analysis of the first 2,600 patients of this German Stroke Registry, and our goal was to eliminate bias. So, for example, we wanted to include data on the stroke severity, the NIHSS score, the amount of early infarction, the ASPECTS score and the location of occlusion, the age of the patient. We selected all the patients that had these data entered. So, we were able to select about 1,200 patients from the German Stroke Registry that fulfilled our inclusion criteria for the present study. To our knowledge, this is the largest multicentric, retrospective study that investigated this effect of retrieval attempts on clinical outcome. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: This is really nice because we are really not used to getting granular details and radiographic details in such large numbers. So, the multicenter nature and the large number of patients included in your study are certainly important strengths of your paper, and that should be noted. Now, Matthew, over to you. Please tell us the main findings of the paper. Dr. Matthew Maros: So, one specialty of our applied methodology is that we used a generalized mixed-effects models, if we didn't know logistic regression framework. That means that our target variable was the mRS90 and the good functional outcome, defined by zero to two scores by mRS. We also implied this framework to be comparable to the HERMES meta-analysis by Goyal et al. And we investigated, in our primary analysis, the effect of age, the baseline stroke severity NIHSS score, ASPECTS score, and also the main explanatory variable that we investigated was the successful reperfusion at N-th retrieval attempt. And we found that, so as one would expect, a younger age and the less severe stroke clinical manifestation, like NIHSS score, was inversely associated with a good functional outcome. So, younger patients and less severe stroke were associated with a favorable outcome. And also, a less severe ischemic changes on a non-contrast head CT, so ASPECTS score eight, nine or ten, were also independent predictors for a good function outcome at 90 days. Our main finding was that the success at the first, second, or third retrieval attempts were significantly and independently associated with a good functional outcome. And interestingly, the effect of the consecutive retrieval attempts were gradually diminishing from an odds ratio from six (around) to three. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: This is interesting. So, basically, what you found is that you go in with the first attempt, second and third, you don't achieve that successful recanalization. If you achieve your successful reperfusion after the third attempt, it's good, but not so good, meaning that it doesn't translate to that beautiful, favorable outcome at 90 days as it did for the first three attempts. Dr. Matthew Maros: So, for four or more retrieval attempts, this positive effect on the outcome has flattened, so the curve is more like a sigmoid curve that was asymptotic to a virtual threshold. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Understood. So, I find it very interesting that this decline in the odds of favorable outcome, despite successful reperfusion, was not simply a factor of time, meaning that, if you tried once and you achieve reperfusion right away, it's so much faster. And of course, time is brain, but if you try five times, it would take longer. It is interesting in your results and your multivariate analysis that even if you adjusted for the factor of delay in time, the results persisted. Could you please tell us about your multivariate analysis and what other factors and co-founders you adjusted for? Dr. Matthew Maros: Exactly. So, as a sensitivity analysis, we also included the time from groin puncture to flow restoration and also sex, and also to be almost identical or highly similar to the model applied in the HERMES meta-analysis. We also included the site of the intracranial occlusion and better intravenous thrombolysis was administered or not. And in the sensitivity analysis, we had almost 90% of our dataset. So almost a thousand one hundred patients. And we found that all the effects of age and NIHSS score stayed significant, and also the effect of the first, second and third retrieval attempts associated with good functional outcome at 90 days were also significant. While interestingly, the effect of intravenous thrombolysis, and also the ASPECTS score, had diminished, but also just narrowly escaped a significant threshold. And interestingly, the effect of time, so time from groin puncture to flow restoration, seemed to be not relevant or be interpreted that way, that the number of retrieval attempts and the effect that we see is not a surrogate of time, that it simply takes longer to perform the interventions, but it's the true effect of achieving recanalization at a certain attempt. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: So, what should be our takeaway from your study, Fabian? Is three that magic number? Are we asking the interventionalist to stop the procedure after the third retrieval attempt if they're unsuccessful, and what should the future hold in terms of studies on this project? Dr. Fabian Flottmann: That's the most important question. Of course, we have to keep in mind that every patient and every intervention is different. The decision to continue or stop the thrombectomy procedure is a very important decision, which is taken by the neurointerventionalist together with his team. And they will take into account multiple factors, including patient's biography, medical history at time from symptom onset, image data, and so on. Our study can provide some guiding information when making this decision. And yes, three could indeed be called a magic number in the following sense. We would like to encourage interventionalists to make at least three attempts in case of persistent occlusion, because we can see a clear benefit even when reperfusion is achieved after the third attempt. Then, in patients with younger age and/or, for example, a good ASPECTS score, even more retrieval attempts are probably warranted regardless of IV thrombolysis, site of occlusion and potentially increased procedure time. Of course, in all these retrospective studies, a bias remains. We don't know why the procedure was stopped in each case. The best thing would be a randomized controlled trial with the following design. You could, in case of persistent occlusions, after two retrievals, randomize to continue or to stop the procedure. And then we would know what the right answer is. So, taken together, our study suggests that in EVT for anterior circulation strokes, at least three retrieval attempts should be performed in cases of persistent occlusion, and up to five attempts of beneficial association with good clinical outcome is expected. Dr. Negar Asdaghi: Doctors Fabian Flottmann and Matthew Maros, thank you very much for joining us and congratulations on this work. And this concludes our podcast today. Don't forget to check the February table of contents for the full list of publications, including original contributions, brief reports, editorials, and our special section on Go Red for Women stroke. Until our next podcast, stay alert with Stroke Alert.

32. Dr. Patrick Lyden on the NIH Stroke Scale

Clinical Appraisal

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2021 20:42

In this episode, Ian has the great pleasure of interviewing Dr. Patrick Lyden, MD, of University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in the division of Neurology, where he asks Dr. Lyden some fundamental questions about the NIHSS instrument. Enjoy!

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Emergency Nursing Assessments, the NIHSS and Pitfalls in Identifying Acute Stroke Patients. How Do You Do It, and Do It Well?

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2020 23:42

Nurses in the emergency setting are the key to stroke patient progression. From first point of assessment and triage, ED nurses set the standard.

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Assessing the ED Stroke Patient for Disability - What Are the Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them?

PaperPlayer biorxiv neuroscience

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 3, 2020 16:51

The NIH Stroke Scale is beneficial when used correctly but is has its limitations. Relying entirely on the NIHSS will miss significant disability in a number of patients. Acute stroke care demands more than just an NIHSS assessment.

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#18 - AVC: escala NIHSS em 5 minutos

Papo de Emergência

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 2, 2020 6:40

Dra. Fernanda Maia, neurologista pelo HCFMUSP e docente do Curso de Medicina da Universidade de Fortaleza relembra, em 5 minutos, a escala NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS), extremamente útil no manejo do AVC.

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Episódio 63 - AVC Isquêmico: Manejo Agudo

Ta de Clinicagem

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 29, 2020 55:06

Quando pensar em trombolisar? Quais os cuidados durante a trombólise? Qual o papel da trombectomia? Essas e muitas outras questões são abordadas no episódio de hoje! Episódio bastante pedido, diretriz lançada recentemente e participação de um convidado mais que especial! Guilherme, Pedro e João recebem mais uma vez o Dr. José Marcos para conversar sobre neurologia. Segue o Link do curso da Universidade do Porto que comentamos no episódio: https://secure.trainingcampus.net/uas/modules/trees/windex.aspx?rx=nihss-portuguese.trainingcampus.net Minutagem (0:28)Apresentação do convidado Dr. Jose Marcos (2:50) Chegada do paciente (3:12) Delta T (8:00) NIHSS ( quantificar déficit) (11:40) Considerar Trombólise (12:15) Glicemia capilar (13:50) Tomografia computadorizada (15:40) Trombólise: contraindicações (19:33) Recomendações específicas (22:20) Trombólise e anticoagulantes (24:45) Trombólise e melhora (26:36) Metas na trombólise (29:35) Cuidados na trombólise (32:00) Complicações da trombólise (33:55) Cuidados pós trombólise (35:35)Anticoagulação pós AVE (37:10) Trombectomia (40:30) Critérios pra Trombectomia (42:55) Oclusão de basilar (43:30) Novos estudos sobre Trombectomia (50:18) Salves (52:00) Desafio da semana anterior (53:00) Desafio da semana

Präklinisches Schlaganfall-Management für Nicht-Neurologen - mit Dr. Dietrich Sturm

Klinisch Relevant

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 6, 2020 10:35

Der Klinisch Relevant Podcast liefert Ärztinnen und Ärzten, sowie Angehörigen der Pflegeberufe kostenlose und unabhängige medizinische Fortbildungsinhalte, die Du jederzeit und überall anhören kannst.

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Sex-specific lesion topographies explain outcomesafter acute ischemic stroke

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 27, 2020

Link to bioRxiv paper: http://biorxiv.org/cgi/content/short/2020.09.25.308742v1?rss=1 Authors: Bonkhoff, A. K., Schirmer, M. D., Bretzner, M., Hong, S., Regenhardt, R., Brudfors, M., Donahue, K., Nardin, M., Dalca, A., Giese, A.-K., Etherton, M., Hancock, B., Mocking, S., McIntosh, E., Attia, J., Benavente, O., Bevan, S., Cole, J., Donatti, A., Griessenauer, C., Heitsch, L., Holmegaard, L., Jood, K., Jimenez-Conde, J., Kittner, S., Lemmens, R., Levi, C., McDonough, C., Meschia, J., Phuah, C.-L., Rolfs, A., Ropele, S., Rosand, J., Roquer, J., Rundek, T., Sacco, R., Schmidt, R., Sharma, P., Slowik, A., Soderholm, M., Sousa, A., Stanne, T., Strbian, D., Tatlisumak, T., Thijs, V., Vagal, A. Abstract: Acute ischemic stroke affects men and women differently in many ways. In particular, women are oftentimes reported to experience a higher acute stroke severity than men. Here, we derived a low-dimensional representation of anatomical stroke lesions and designed a sex-aware Bayesian hierarchical modelling framework for a large-scale, well phenotyped stroke cohort. This framework was tailored to carefully estimate possible sex differences in lesion patterns explaining acute stroke severity (NIHSS) in 1,058 patients (39% female). Anatomical regions known to subserve motor and language functions emerged as relevant regions for both men and women. Female patients, however, presented a more widespread pattern of stroke severity-relevant lesions than male patients. Furthermore, particularly lesions in the posterior circulation of the left hemisphere underlay a higher stroke severity exclusively in women. These sex-sensitive lesion pattern effects could be discovered and subsequently robustly replicated in two large independent, multisite lesion datasets. The constellation of findings has several important conceptual and clinical implications: 1) suggesting sex-specific functional cerebral asymmetries, and 2) motivating a sex-stratified approach to management of acute ischemic stroke. To go beyond sex-averaged stroke research, future studies should explicitly test whether acute therapies administered on the basis of sex-specific cutoff volumes of salvageable tissue will lead to improved outcomes in women after acute ischemic stroke. Copy rights belong to original authors. Visit the link for more info

Structural integrity of white matter tracts as a predictor of acute ischemic stroke outcome

International Journal of Stroke: Podcast Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 21, 2020 17:00

Clinical assessment scores in acute ischemic stroke are only moderately correlated with lesion volume since lesion location is an important confounding factor. Many studies have investigated grey matter indicators of stroke severity but the understanding of white matter tract involvement is limited in the early phase after stroke. Carmen Lahiff-Jenkins, Managing Editor for the International Journal of Stroke spoke to Dr Deepthi Rajashekar from the Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program, Department of Radiology, University of Calgary and Professor Michael Hill Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary and Foothills Medical Centre. Both are authors of the manuscript Structural integrity of white matter tracts as a predictor of acute ischemic stroke outcome published recently in IJS. This study aimed to measure and model the involvement of WM tracts with respect to 24-hours post-stroke National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and have found that white matter tract integrity and lesion load are important predictors for clinical outcomes after acute ischemic stroke as measured by the NIHSS and should be integrated for predictive modelling. Access the article here

university medicine calgary clinical national institutes outcome stroke managing editors wm structural international journal radiology predictors tracts ijs structural integrity acute ischemic stroke white matter nihss

Dual antiplatelet therapy for TIA

STAT Dose Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 23, 2020 30:28

Here we review a meta analysis likely to influence TIA and minor stroke guidelines of the future. We then give an overview of TIA in the clinical context: Review of the meta analysis (0:25) TIA definition and causes (8:55) Assessing patients with TIA (14:44) TIA management and follow up (22:23) Summary and sign off (28:15) ABCD2 scores and NIHSS: https://www.mdcalc.com/abcd2-score-tia and https://www.mdcalc.com/nih-stroke-scale-score-nihss

therapy assessing dual tia antiplatelet nihss

13 Stroke in 2030

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 5, 2020 15:44

Key Terms: Thrombolysis, endovascular therapy, Hosts: Ryan Muir, Houman Khosravani Summary: In this episode the hosts discuss the future of stroke by exploring and proposing novel applied modern concepts of endovascular and thrombolytic therapies to innovative and creative ideas for the future. Endovascular therapy for distal vessels is discussed Improving geographic access to endovascular therapy (especially for wide spread countries like Canada) The role of the NIHSS score in the acute assessment of stroke in the future and the increasing reliance on imaging parameters to guide decision making The future of thrombolysis The future of neuroimaging: Evolving understanding of ASPECTS and MRI Brain (Solid state MRI in acute stroke assessments), and potential role for focused ultrasound Neuroprotection and extending time-windows

improving evolving stroke aspects mri endovascular neuroprotection nihss

04 Pipe Cleaners

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2020 32:25

Key Terms: Endovascular therapy (EVT), Mechanical Thrombectomy, Large Vessel Occlusion, CT-Perfusion, Perfusion Mismatch Hosts: Ryan Muir, Tess Fitzpatrick, Houman Khosravani Summary: What is endovascular therapy? What were the early trials of EVT – what did we learn from them? MULTI – MERCI PENUMBRA PIVOTAL IMS-III MR. RESCUE Modified Rankin Scale (MRS) at 90 days). These trials were summarized in a meta-analysis performed by the HERMES in collaboration in 2016. MR. CLEAN ESCAPE REVASCAT SWIFT PRIME EXTEND IA In the HERMES pooled analysis the number needed to treat with EVT was 2.6 persons to reduce MRS by 1 point. One trial was done later also favoured EVT, but was not included in the HERMES meta-analysis - the THRACE trial DAWN DEFUSE 3 As a result of DAWN and DEFUSE 3, the 2019 AHA/ASA Guidelines now suggest: Within 0 – 6 hours of symptom onset: Direct aspiration thrombectomy as a first pass or mechanical thrombectomy with a stent retriever should be done if the following criteria are met: (i) prestroke MRS of 0 – 1 (ii) causative occlusion of the internal carotid artery or MCA segment 1 (M1) (iii) age >18 years (4) NIHSS ≥ 6 Within 6 – 24 hours of symptom onset In selected patients with acute ischemic stroke within 6 – 16 hours of last known normal who have a large vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation and meet other DAWN or DEFUSE 3 eligibility criteria, mechanical thrombectomy is recommended In selected patients with acute ischemic stroke within 6 – 24 hours of last known normal who have a large vessel occlusion in the anterior circulation and meet other DAWN eligibility criteria, mechanical thrombectomy is reasonable

pipe hermes m1 cleaners mca defuse thrace evt nihss

02 Mechanics at a Stroke Code

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 4, 2020 32:58

Key Terms: Code stroke, protocol, intravenous tPA risks, intravenous tPA contraindications, ASPECTS and stroke mimics Hosts: Ryan Muir, Tess Fitzpatrick, Houman Khosravani Summary: In this episode the hosts discuss the approach to the acute assessment of a patient presenting as a code stroke. This episode also reviews the indications, relative contraindications and absolute contraindications to thrombolysis. Defining roles within the Code Stroke Team: splitting the team into MD1 and MD2. Assess patient stability. Airway, Breathing, Circulation, Glucose. Ask yourself is this the type of patient who needs intubation or ICU? Is this the type of patient you may need help from the ER doctor managing vitals? Examination and NIHSS performed by MD1 while MD2 is collecting collateral information (don't delay the scan for the full NIHSS, this can be completed later). Before travelling to the scanner, be prepared: thrombolysis kit and anti-hypertensives Be on the lookout for “STROKE MIMICS.” Some common stroke mimics are depicted below in the Table 1 Adapted from the 2017 American Academy of Neurology Continuum Article titled, “Clinical Evaluation of the Patient with Acute Stroke.” ASPECTS score MD2 to review indications and contraindications to thrombolysis and endovascular therapy Risks of thrombolysis: hemorrhage, angioedema Documenting the discussion of consent for thrombolysis and endovascular therapy

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05 Stayin' Alive (ah, ah, ah)