Intracerebral hemorrhage after IV rt-PA therapy for acute ischemic stroke

We evaluated data from 1,205 patients treated with intravenous recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA) for acute ischemic stroke within 3 hours of symptom onset to identify pretreatment predictors of rt-PA-related intracerebral hemorrhage. Our findings suggest stroke severity, diabetes mellitus, increasing serum glucose, early ischemic changes on computed tomography, and decreasing platelet counts are associated with thrombolysis-related intracerebral hemorrhage. These risk factors may help physicians identify patients at high and low risk for rt-PA treatment and better understand the pathophysiology of thrombosis-related intracerebral hemorrhage.