Predictive Factors for Functional Outcomes After Intravenous Thrombolytic Therapy in Acute Ischemic Stroke

The objective of our study is to detect the patient group that will most benefit from intravenous (IV) thrombolytic therapy by showing predictive factors of good functional outcomes. The present study covers 88 patients who were admitted to our clinic within the first 4.5 hours from the onset of stroke symptoms, diagnosed with acute ischemic stroke and who received IV thrombolytic therapy between May 2014 and June 2017 as a result of a retrospective analysis of a database prospectively collected. The patients with a score of ≤2 on modified Rankin scale within 3 months were accepted as good functional outcome and those with a score of >2 were accepted as poor functional outcome. As a result, within the period of 3 months posttreatment, good functional outcomes were obtained in 45 (51.1%) patients and poor functional outcomes were obtained in 43 (48.9%) patients. In comparisons, cardioembolic stroke group was statistically significantly higher in the good functional outcome group ( P = .03). Pretreatment National Institute of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores ( P < .001), presence of proximal hyperintense middle cerebral artery sign in noncontrast computed brain tomography ( P = .03), and being aged ≥80 and older ( P = .04) were markedly higher in the group with poor functional outcomes. In conclusion, our study demonstrated that cardioembolic strokes may have an impact on good functional outcomes and being aged 80 and older, presence of proximal HMCAS in computed brain tomography, and pretreatment NIHSS scores may have an impact on poor functional outcomes.