Advanced treatment time improves outcomes of patients with ischemic stroke undergoing reperfusion therapy

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the effect of treatment time on the outcome of patients with ischemic stroke undergoing reperfusion therapy. METHODS: The clinical data of 3229 ischemic stroke patients who received intravenous thrombolysis with or without arterial thrombolysis from 71 hospitals in Zhejiang province from June 2017 to September 2018 were retrospectively reviewed. The good outcome was defined as modified Rankin Scale (mRS) ≤ 2. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the association of door to needle time (DNT), or door to reperfusion time (DRT) with the outcomes in patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis or bridging arterial thrombolysis, respectively. RESULTS: Binary logistic regression showed that DNT (OR=0.994, 95%CI:0.991-0.997, P<0.01) or DRT (OR=0.989, 95%CI:0.983-0.995, P<0.01) were independently associated with good outcomes, respectively. Every hour decreases in DNT resulted in a 4.7%increased probability of functional independence (mRS 0-2) in patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis; Every hour decreases in DRT was associated with a 11.4%increased probability of functional independence in patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis with arterial thrombolysis. CONCLUSIONS: Good outcomes are associated with lower DNT in ischemic stroke patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis or lower DRT in patients treated by intravenous thrombolysis bridging arterial thrombolysis.