Prospective, Multicenter, Controlled Trial of Mobile Stroke Units

James C Grotta1, Jose-Miguel Yamal1, Stephanie A Parker1

  • 1From the Mobile Stroke Unit, Memorial Hermann Hospital-Texas Medical Center (J.C.G., J. McCarthy, T.F.), the Departments of Biostatistics and Data Science (J.-M.Y., A.P.J., M.W., N.S., M.G.) and Management, Policy, and Community Heath (S.S.R.), University of Texas School of Public Health, the Departments of Neurology (S.A.P., N.R.G., P.L.B., N.R.-G., E.L., J.S., K.P., Y.S., E.A.N., R.B.) and Emergency Medicine (D.P.), University of Texas McGovern Medical School, the Departments of Emergency Medicine (D.P.) and Neurology (C.P.V.R.), Baylor College of Medicine, the Department of Neurology, Houston Methodist Hospital (D.C., J.V., V.M.), the Department of Neurology, Harris Health-Ben Taub General Hospital (J.S.K.), and HCA Houston Healthcare (L.G.) - all in Houston; the Department of Neurology, University of Colorado, UCHealth Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora (W.J.J., B.D.S., K.A., M.E., D.O.), and the Department of Neurology, UCHealth Memorial Hospital, Colorado Springs (J. Miller) - both in Colorado; the Department of Neurology, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis (A.W.A., A.V.A., J.P.R.); the Department of Neurology, Weill Cornell Medicine (B.B.N., M.E.F., C.S., M.L., S.M.), and the Department of Neurology, Columbia University Irving Medical Center (J.Z.W.) - both in New York; the Department of Neurology, Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles (M.N., J.L.S., K.M.B., B.M.V.), the Department of Neurology, Mills Peninsula Medical Center, Burlingame (I.S., J.E., N. Barazangi, J.I.), Los Angeles County Emergency Medical Services, Santa Fe Springs (M.G.-H., N. Bosson), and San Mateo County Emergency Medical Services, South San Francisco (G.G.) - all in California; and the Department of Neurology, Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis (J. Mackey, S.Q.C., K.S.).

Summary

Mobile stroke units (MSUs) significantly improved outcomes for acute stroke patients eligible for tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA). MSUs reduced treatment times and disability scores compared to standard emergency medical services (EMS).