Treatment outcomes of tissue plasminogen activator infusion for branch atheromatous disease

The objective of this study was to evaluate treatment outcomes of tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) infusion for hyperacute branch atheromatous disease (BAD) within 3 hours after onset.

A total of 152 BAD patients with lenticulostriate artery (LSA) or paramedian pontine artery (PPA) territory infarcts (LSA 114; PPA 38) were hospitalized between April 2007 and June 2012. Of these, 21 BAD patients (LSA 19; PPA 2) arrived at the hospital within 3 hours after onset, and, among these, 8 patients who received t-PA infusion (.6 mg/kg) were included in this study. All BAD patients who received t-PA infusion had LSA territory infarcts.

Six of 8 patients (75%) had improvement of neurologic findings within 60 minutes after t-PA infusion, but neurologic findings deteriorated within 24 hours in 4 of these patients (67%). In all patients with deterioration, diffusion-weighted imaging after 24 hours revealed infarct expansion. One patient (13%) had symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. After 3 months, the modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score was 0 to 2 in 6 patients (75%) and 3 to 6 in 2 patients (25%).

With t-PA infusion for BAD, symptoms transiently improved, but the rate of symptom deterioration was high. The outcome after 3 months was relatively good.