Initial Stroke Severity Is the Major Outcome Predictor for Patients Who Do Not Receive Intravenous Thrombolysis due to Mild or Rapidly Improving Symptoms
Table 1
Characteristics of patients in the groups of favorable and unfavorable outcome.
Favorable
Unfavorable
P
No
32
17
Age, years
64.7 ± 13.2
72.5 ± 10.0
0.037
Female sex
10 (31.3)
9 (52.9)
0.138
Initial presentations
NIHSS
2.2 ± 2.1
5.7 ± 4.0
< 0.001
Improving symptoms*
13 (40.6)
14 (82.4)
0.005
Systolic BP, mmHg
170 ± 26
162 ± 26
0.261
Diastolic BP, mmHg
98 ± 15
86 ± 18
0.018
Glucose, mg/dL
158 ± 64
151 ± 50
0.724
Risk factors
Atrial fibrillation
1 (3.1)
4 (23.5)
0.043
Artery stenosis
7 (21.9)
10 (58.8)
0.012
Hypertension
23 (71.9)
14 (82.4)
0.417
Diabetes
9 (28.1)
8 (47.1)
0.185
Previous stroke
5 (15.6)
4 (23.5)
0.700
Smoking habit
14 (43.8)
5 (29.4)
0.327
Outcome at discharge
NIHSS
1.4 ± 1.3
5.3 ± 3.3
< 0.001
mRS
1.2 ± 0.6
3.4 ± 0.5
< 0.001
Barthel index
95.7 ± 8.4
57.7 ± 23.9
< 0.001
Examinations
MRA
16 (50.0)
12 (70.6)
0.166
Carotid duplex
28 (87.5)
17 (100.0)
0.248
MRA or duplex
29 (90.6)
17 (100.0)
0.542
EKG
32 (100.0)
17 (100.0)
—
*Number of patients excluded from thrombolysis due to improving symptoms. Continuous variables are median ± standard deviation. Numbers in parenthesis denote percentage.
