Figure 1. Model Structure Representing the 3-Month Acute Phase and the Long-term Sequence of Events Post-initial Stroke.

Patient’s entry into the model occurs at presentation with acute ischemic stroke between 6 and 24 hours after stroke onset. Patients receive either mechanical thrombectomy with standard care or standard care alone as acute treatment and enter a health state of the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) after the 3-month acute phase. Patients who survive the initial acute phase enter the Markov model, which runs on 3-month cycles. After every 3 months, patients can remain in their current mRS state, experience a recurrent stroke, or die from a nonstroke-related cause. After a recurrent stroke, patients either die or transition to a worse mRS state (with risk equally divided among worse states).