Current status of acute ischemic stroke management in Iran: Findings from a single-center study

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the current status of acute ischemic stroke (AIS) management in an Iranian emergency department (ED). METHODS: A descriptive study using a retrospective chart review was conducted on medical records of 270 patients with AIS who presented to the ED of a tertiary university hospital in the northeast of Iran from March 22 to September 22, 2019. The steps of this review process included instrument identification, medical records retrieval, data extraction, and data verification. RESULTS: Of patients with AIS, 88.9% (n = 240) did not receive stroke code activation. For the 11.1% of patients (n = 30) who received activation, 7% of codes (n = 19) were canceled by the acute stroke team and IV recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (r-tPA) was only administered for 4.1% of patients (n = 11). ED arrival outside 4.5 h from symptom onset was the main barrier to IV r-tPA administration for 83.8% of potentially eligible patients with AIS (n = 217). The median door-to-needle time was 70 min (interquartile range: 47-90 min). CONCLUSIONS: There was a better clinical performance in terms of critical time goals in potentially eligible patients with AIS if managed with stroke team activation compared to no stroke team activation.