rtPA intravenous thrombolysis in anterior choroidal artery territory stroke.

Objective: To study the possible specific response to recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) thrombolysis of anterior choroidal artery (AChA) stroke.

Background: Outcome and response after rtPA thrombolysis are possibly better in small-vessel infarcts, but a specific study of AChA stroke has not yet been performed.

Methods: The authors proposed an open trial of IV rtPA within 7 hours in patients age 20 and 81 years with all types of internal carotid artery territory stroke if the baseline Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) score was less than 48.

Thrombolysis with intravenous rtPA in a series of 100 cases of acute carotid territory stroke: determination of etiological, topographic, and radiological outcome factors.

Background And Purpose: Although new, large, double-blind, randomized studies are needed to establish the efficiency of intravenous thrombolysis, open trials of sufficient size may also provide novel data concerning specific outcomes after thrombolysis.

Methods: An open study of intravenous rtPA in 100 patients with internal carotid artery (ICA) territory strokes between 20 and 81 years of age, with a baseline Scandinavian Stroke Scale (SSS) score of <48 at entry was conducted. Inclusion time was within 7 hours after stroke onset.