Abstract 22: Late Functional Improvement in Acute Ischemic Stroke Patients: Pooled Analysis of Three Multicenter Clinical Trials

Background: Most studies recruiting patients with acute ischemic stroke ascertain the final functional status at 3 months post symptom onset. The rates and predictors of late functional improvement (>3 months) in acute ischemic stroke patients has not been systemically studied. Methods: We analyzed data from three phase-III randomized multicenter clinical trials that recruited acute ischemic stroke patients within 3 or within 5 hours of symptoms onset. Late improvement was defined by an improvement of 1 or more grade in modified Rankin scale between ascertainments performed at 3 and 12 months post randomization. We analyzed the rates of late improvement in three groups of patients; patients treated with IV (recombinant tissue plasminogen activator [rt-PA], those treated with endovascular treatment, and those not treated with any acute reperfusion treatment. Multivariate analysis was performed to identify predictors’ of late functional improvement. Results: A total of 2555 patients (mean age ± SD; 66.4 ± 1...