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. 2013 Oct;3(5):371. doi: 10.1212/01.CPJ.0000435706.04846.53

Contraindications to intravenous rtPA for acute stroke

A critical reappraisal

PMCID: PMC5765833  PMID: 29473597

In the article “Contraindications to intravenous rtPA for acute stroke: A critical reappraisal” by A.A. Rabinstein and J.E. Fugate (Neur Clin Pract® 2013;3:177–185), clarification is needed in the summary/introduction. The statistic that 1%–5% of stroke patients are treated with rtPA uses the total of all admitted Medicare patients as the denominator, regardless of the time-to-presentation.1,2 In stroke centers that report data to large registries, the more accurate statistic is closer to 20%.3 The authors regret any confusion.

References

  • 1.Kleindorfer D, de los Rios La Rosa F, Khatri P. Temporal trends in acute stroke management. Stroke. 2013;44:S129–S131. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.113.001457. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 2.Nasr DM, Brinjikji W, Cloft HJ, et al.. Utilization of intravenous thrombolysis is increasing in the United States. Int J Stroke Epub 2012 Aug 9. [DOI] [PubMed]
  • 3.De Los Rios la Rosa F, Khoury J, Kissela BM. Eligibility for Intravenous Recombinant Tissue-Type Plasminogen Activator Within a Population: The Effect of the European Cooperative Acute Stroke Study (ECASS) III Trial. Stroke. 2012;43:1591–1595. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.645986. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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