A Randomized Trial of Intraarterial Treatment for Acute Ischemic Stroke

In patients with acute ischemic stroke due to a proximal intracranial arterial occlusion, intraarterial treatment (with retrievable stents in 82% of patients) within 6 hours improved functional outcome at 90 days. Alteplase was given to 89% of patients before randomization. Intravenous alteplase administered within 4.5 hours after symptom onset is the only reperfusion therapy with proven efficacy in patients with acute ischemic stroke. 1 However, well-recognized limitations of this therapy include the narrow therapeutic time window and contraindications such as recent surgery, coagulation abnormalities, and a history of intracranial hemorrhage. 2 Moreover, intravenous alteplase appears to be much less effective at opening proximal occlusions of the major intracranial arteries, which account for more than one third of cases of acute anterior-circulation stroke. 3 , 4 Early recanalization after intravenous alteplase is seen in only about one third of patients with an occlusion of the . . .