People treated with a blood clot dissolving drug within three hours of suffering a stroke have better and faster recovery, a new study published in The Lancet reveals.
The international study, involving more than 6700 stroke patients, found that those who received the drug alteplase had a 75 per cent better outcome if they were treated within the first three hours of a stroke. However, the benefit rapidly declined if treatment was delayed by even a few hours.
Study co-author Professor Richard Lindley from University of Sydney, said the study showed that treatment with alteplase significantly increased the odds of a good stroke outcome.
"Alteplase is effective in dissolving blood clots in those who have suffered a stroke, and is particularly effective if it is administered within three hours.
"Previously alteplase was deemed ineffective and too risky to treat stroke patients who were elderly, diabetic, or had suffered a severe stroke. Doctors were reluctant to use it and these patients were often excluded from treatment.
"However, this study has found that alteplase is an effective emergency treatment for ischaemic stroke patients (strokes caused by blood clots) and should be available irrespective of age, severity, and clinical presentation.
"Our data reveals that time is crucial in treating stroke patients - the quicker alteplase is administered, the more effective the treatment. "This is an important finding considering how disabling a major stroke is for patients, with health outcomes including paralysis, speech impairment, loss of memory and reasoning ability, and coma.
"Prompt treatment with alteplase should be considered for all ischaemic stroke patients as this treatment has the potential to prevent serious disability after stroke.
"This treatment is not without its risks, however the risks are worth the benefits given that stroke is so disabling. Our data revealed that the benefits of alteplase occurred despite an increase in the number of early fatal intracranial hemorrhages of about two per cent.
"This research builds on two earlier papers also published in the Lancet, which found that alteplase was just as effective in older stroke patients as it was in younger patients," Professor Lindley said.
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Clot-busting drug effective in stroke treatment