Predictors of thrombolysis in the telestroke and non telestroke settings for hypertensive acute ischemic stroke patients

BACKGROUND: In acute ischemic stroke patients, telestroke technology provides sustainable approaches to improve the use of thrombolysis therapy. How this is achieved as it relates to inclusion or exclusion of clinical risk factors for thrombolysis is not fully understood. We investigated this in a population of hypertensive stroke patients. METHODS: Structured data from a regional stroke registry that contained telestroke and non telestroke patients with a primary diagnosis of acute ischemic stroke with history of hypertension were collected between January 2014 and June 2016. Clinical risk factors associated with inclusion or exclusion for recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) in the telestroke and non telestroke were identified using multiple regression analysis. Associations between variables and rtPA in the regression models were determined using variance inflation factors while the fitness of each model was determined using the ROC curve to predict the power of each logistic regression model. RESULTS: The non telestroke admitted more patients (62% vs 38%), when compared with the telestroke. Although the telestroke admitted fewer patients, it excluded 11% and administered thrombolysis therapy to 89% of stroke patients with hypertension. In the non telestroke group, adjusted odd ratios showed significant associations of NIH stroke scale score (OR = 1.059, 95% CI, 1.025–1.093, P < 0.001) and coronary artery disease (OR = 2.003, 95% CI, 1.16–3.457, P = 0.013) with inclusion, while increasing age (OR = 0.979, 95% CI, 0.961–0.996, P = 0.017), higher INR (OR = 0.146, 95% CI, 0.032–0.665, P = 0.013), history of previous stroke (OR = 0.39, 95% CI, 0.223–0.68, P = 0.001), and renal insufficiency (OR = 0.153, 95% CI, 0.046–0.508, P = 0.002) were associated with rtPA exclusion. In the telestroke, only direct admission to the telestroke was associated with rtPA administration, (OR = 4.083, 95% CI, 1.322–12.611, P = 0.014). CONCLUSION: The direct admission of hypertensive stroke patients to the telestroke network was the only factor associated with inclusion for thrombolysis therapy even after adjustment for baseline variables. The telestroke technology provides less restrictive criteria for clinical risk factors associated with the inclusion of hypertensive stroke patients for thrombolysis.