- Advances in Secondary Prevention of Stroke - Although there is great interest in neuro-protective therapy, none of the drugs currently in trials have been shown to be of benefit and none are licensed.
Thrombolytic therapy
Thrombolysis has now been tried in several multi-centre trials, usually within six hours of the onset of symptoms. IV therpy has been with either alteplase, streprokinase or urokinase.
Overall, the risk of symptomatic intracranial haemorrhage was increased from about 2% to 9%. There wa some reduction in the proportion of patients who died or remained dependent at the end of the trial, particularly if therapy was given within three hours (approximately 55% compared with 70% without thrombolysis).
In the USA this has lead to routine use of IV alteplase within three hours of the o Continue reading

