Tori Hysko
University of Central Florida Medical School, USA
Title: The benefits and risks of using Alteplase as the first-line of treatment for stoke patients with low (<5) NIHSS scores: A retrospective study of Orlando Health’s stroke database
Biography
Biography: Tori Hysko
Abstract
Alteplase is a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) that has been shown to be the most accessible and effective medical treatment for ischemic stroke with Class I level A evidence in favor of its use.1 However, its use in treatment of mild stroke remains controversial. We hypothesize that patients in the Orlando Health stoke database with a low NIHSS score (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; NIHSS < 5), who otherwise meet criteria, are not always treated with Alteplase.2,3 Our goal is to examine the variability of physician treatment and outcomes in mild stroke patients and to better understand why all physicians are not using tPA to treat mild stroke patients, despite its proven effectiveness4,5,7. We speculate the wide variability in treatment of mild strokes is due to the conflicting data seen in the stroke literature, ambiguity of the clinical guidelines, lack of understanding of the risk vs. benefit ratio in this population.6 If our hypothesis is correct, our results will help to educate the Orlando Health medical community on how to more effectively treat mild stroke patients. Our results will help guide future research efforts to revamp current stroke guidelines, which could ultimately improve patient’s functional outcomes and decrease the healthcare cost of mild strokes nationwide.