[Non-contrast brain ct based systemic thrombolysis of two wake up ischemic stroke patients in rural settings]

Background and presentation - Conventionally the acute ischemic stroke patients who wake up with symptomes (WUS - wake up stroke) cannot benefit from systemic thrombolysis due to the uncertainty of the exact onset time of the cerebrovascular event. Perfusion brain imaging could be used as patient selection tool but the method is not available in many settings. Simple non-contrast CT scan is easily accessible and reliable as it shows the different stages of the evolving ischemia with high accuracy. Early brain CT scan results of WUS patients have the same characteristics as the ones who are surely within therapeutic window. The intravenous thrombolysis with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rTPA) of WUS patients seems to be similarly successful as the ones with known onset time, the treatment does not come with excess complications, higher rate of symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage was not found in previous reports. Purpose - In this report we present two systemic thrombolysis cases of acute ischemic stroke patients who woke up with stroke symptoms. Methods - In 2014 and 2015 we performed systemic thrombolysis for one wake up stroke patients, respectively. Both patients had large vessel occlusion. Indication was based on favourable non-contrast brain CT scan results. Results - Treatment of these two patients with rTPA proved to be safe, no hemorrhage occurred after treatment. Conclusion - We presented two acute ischemic stroke patients with symptomes at early wake up who were treated intravenously with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator based on non-contrast CT alone without complications and some moderate improvement at 90 days in the settings of a rural town hospital in a middle income country.