Reperfusion therapies for wake-up stroke

Wake-up stroke (WUS) patients are those who go to sleep without stroke symptom and wake up with stroke symptom. WUS is very common in clinical practice. One out of every five new ischemic strokes is WUS. These patients are usually excluded from thrombolytic therapy because their exact onset time is unknown. The latest research have shown that reperfusion therapy is safe and effective in selected WUS patients based on multimodal imaging. This article reviews the imaging-guided reperfusion therapy for WUS. Key words: Stroke; Brain Ischemia; Wakefulness; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Thrombolytic Therapy; Tissue Plasminogen Activator; Endovascular Procedures; Thrombectomy; Treatment Outcome