Abstract:
In Indian scenario, most of the cases of acute ischemic stroke are
admitted and initiated treatment when the stipulated period of 4-6h for
thrombolytic therapy is crossed. It is unclear on to benefits of treating such
patients and our study aims at analysing the clinical and demographic factors
associated with achieving improvement in functional ability in this special
category of patients.
Methods: Review of case records of acute ischemic stroke patients admitted
after 6h of onset of stroke to a tertiary care teaching hospital of north Karnataka,
India, over a period of one year with minimum of seven days of treatment was
done. Drug utilization pattern, severity of ischemic stroke, baseline
demographic and clinical data were extracted. The neurological recovery at the
end of treatment period was analysed by using Barthel Index (BI) score. All the
factors and drug utilization pattern were described using descriptive statistics
and their correlation with BI score was analysed by spearman’s correlation
coefficient.
Results: Of the total 446 case records with diagnosis of stroke, only 39 met the
eligibility criteria and included in the study. Statistically significant correlation
to BI score was seen with severity of stroke, day-1 SBP, use of physiotherapy,
time lapsed in initiating treatment, amount of decrease in SBP and baseline
serum creatinine level.
Conclusions: Our study helped in generating the hypothesis on effects of
various factors and therapeutic modalities on neurological recovery of late
admitted cases of acute ischemic stroke
