Minor Non-Disabling Stroke Patients with Large Vessel Severe Stenosis or Occlusion Might Benefit from Thrombolysis

The benefit of alteplase in minor non-disabling acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is unknown. We aimed to explore the clinical efficacy of alteplase-treatment in minor non-disabling stroke in clinical practice.

We used a prospectively collected database of AIS patients who were being assessed for thrombolysis with alteplase. Minor non-disabling AIS was identified as patients with baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score ≤ 5 and a score 0 or 1 on each baseline NIHSS score item (items 1a to 1c being 0).

A total of 461 patients with minor non-disabling AIS were included and among them 240 (52.1%) patients were treated with alteplase and 113 (24.5%) patients had severe stenosis/occlusion of large vessels. No significant association of 90-day excellent outcome was found with alteplase-treatment (77.1% vs. 80.5%, p 1 = 0.425; OR 0.911, 95% CI 0.428 to 1.940; p 2 = 0.808). However, among patients with severe stenosis/occlusion of large vessels, alteplase-treatment was independently associated with excellent outcome (74.4% vs. 45.7%, p 1 = 0.005; OR 4.709, 95% CI 1.391 to 11.962; p 2 = 0.010).

Although alteplase-treatment did not result in an excellent outcome in general minor non-disabling stroke patients, it may work in those specific patients who had severe stenosis/occlusion of large vessels.