Intra-arterial Therapy for Acute Stroke: Trials and Tribulations

摘要

Stroke is a devastating di sease, affectingover 750,000 individuals in theUnited States each year. For patientswith acute ischemic stroke, intra-venoustissue plasminogen activator (tPA) is abreakthrough treatment which improvesoutcomes when given within 4.5 hoursfrom symptom onset.1-6 However, somepatients are ineligible for intra-venoustPA (IVT) and some fail to respond.In those instances, direct intra-arterialtherapy (IAT) offers patients a treatmentoption. In this article, we will examine thepast, present and future of IAT for acuteischemic stroke.