US Pharm. 2014;39(3):61.
Baltimore, MD—Patients hospitalized with ischemic stroke who have received a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) infusion may not need the 24-hour critical-care monitoring that is the current standard, according to a recent study. Researchers analyzed data on 153 stroke patients admitted to emergency departments at two Johns Hopkins hospitals and found that patients who received a score of less than 10 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale and did not need to be transferred to the ICU after the first hour had a 1% risk of later developing a problem that would require ICU care. The researchers plan a prospective study to verify these results, cautioning that under certain circumstances, such as tPA-linked bleeding, ICU care is definitely necessary.
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