Safety of thrombolysis in stroke mimics: an observational cohort study from an urban teaching hospital in Sweden.

Objectives: Acute stroke management has changed dramatically over the recent years, where a timely assessment is driven by the expanding treatment options of acute ischaemic stroke. This increases the risk in treating non-stroke patients (stroke mimics) with a possibly hazardous intravenous thrombolysis treatment (IVT).

Setting: Patients of the thrombolysis registry of Södersjukhuset AB, a secondary health centre in Stockholm, were retrospectively studied to determine complications and outcome after IVT in strokes and stroke mimics.

Higher prehospital priority level of stroke improves thrombolysis frequency and time to stroke unit: the Hyper Acute STroke Alarm (HASTA) study.

Background And Purpose: Early initiated treatment of stroke increases the chances of a good recovery. This randomized controlled study evaluates how an increased priority level for patients with stroke, from level 2 to 1, from the Emergency Medical Communication Center influences thrombolysis frequency, time to stroke unit, and whether other medical emergencies reported negative consequences.

Methods: Patients aged 18 to 85 years in Stockholm, Sweden, with symptoms of stroke within 6 hours were randomized from the Emergency Medical Communication Center or emergency medical services to an intervention group, priority level 1, immediate call of an ambulance, or to a control group with standard priority level, that is, priority level 2 (within 30 minutes).

Functional energetics of CD4+-cellular immunity in monoclonal antibody-associated progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy in autoimmune disorders.

Background: Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is an opportunistic central nervous system- (CNS-) infection that typically occurs in a subset of immunocompromised individuals. An increasing incidence of PML has recently been reported in patients receiving monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapy for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, particularly those treated with natalizumab, efalizumab and rituximab. Intracellular CD4(+)-ATP-concentration (iATP) functionally reflects cellular immunocompetence and inversely correlates with risk of infections during immunosuppressive therapy.