PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:
22-Apr-2014
Contact: Rachel Champeau rchampeau@mednet.ucla.edu 310-794-2270 University of California - Los Angeles Health Sciences
Administering a clot-dissolving drug to stroke victims quickly ideally within the first 60 minutes after they arrive at a hospital emergency room is crucial to saving their lives, preserving their brain function and reducing disability.
Given intravenously, tPA (tissue plasminogen activator) is currently the only Food and Drug Administrationapproved therapy shown to improve outcomes for patients suffering acute ischemic stroke, which affects some 800,000 Americans annually.
Now, a UCLA-led study demonstrates that hospitals participating in the "Target: Stroke" national quality-improvement program have markedly increased the speed with which they treat stroke patients with tPA. Researchers looked at more than 1,000 hospitals participating in the initiative, which was conceived by UCLA faculty and is conducted in collaboration with the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
The findings of the study are published in the April 23 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers report that at participating hospitals, the average time it took to deliver tPA to patients fell from 74 minutes to 59 minutes. This speedier treatment, they said, was accompanied by improved outcomes, including reduced mortality, fewer treatment complications and a greater likelihood that patients would go home after leaving the hospital instead of being referred to a skilled nursing facility for advanced rehabilitation.
"These findings reinforce the importance and clinical benefits of faster administration of intravenous tPA. Through this national initiative, more patients were able to be treated with this beneficial therapy and in a safer, more effective fashion," said first author Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, UCLA's Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science and director of the AhmansonUCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
The benefits of tPA in acute ischemic stroke are highly time-dependent, and for more than a decade, guidelines have recommended administering the treatment within 60 minutes of hospital arrival. Yet despite the evidence, recommendations and prior efforts, a previous study by the team found that less than 30 percent of eligible patients were receiving the medication in that first hour.
Link:
Stroke treatment, outcomes improve at hospitals participating in UCLA-led initiative