The Effect of Implementing Hyper-acute Stroke Guidelines on Decision-Making for or Against Thrombolytic Therapy for Stroke in the Emergency Department

Inclusion criteria

• Patients presenting to the emergency Signs and symptoms of acute ischemic stroke: impairment of language, motor function, cognition and/or gaze, vision or neglect.
• Patients with an NIH Stroke Scale score > 4

Exclusion criteria

• Age less than 19
• Patient symptomatic for greater than five hours. Intravenous thrombolytic therapy must be instituted within three hours of symptom onset in order to minimize the risk of Intracerebral or symptomatic hemorrhage; other interventions such as intra-arterial thrombolytic therapy and clot retrieval allow for a six-hour window. One hour is an achievable time for arrival to institution of therapy, therefore a five-hour limit on enrollment allows the greatest number of patients the possibility of therapy.
• Inability to verify a clear onset of symptoms. As noted, time elapsed since the patient's last known baseline state is correlated to Intracerebral and symptomatic hemorrhage, and therapy is approved only for patients with a clear time of onset.