Evaluation of clinical efficacy of intraarterial thrombolysis for acute cerebral ischemic stroke

Objective To evaluate the clinical efficacy of local intra-arterial thrombolysis (LIT) with urokinase in patients with acute ischemic stroke.Methods One hundred and sixty two patients with acute ischemic stroke were treated with LIT by using urokinase and relationship of reconalization for different occluded arteries with the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) scores three months later was analyzed. Results Angiography showed occlusion of the cerebral artery in 162 patients, among which 119(73.5%) patients showed the sites in the internal carotid artery system, with 27 occlusions in the internal carotid artery (ICA)trunk, 63(38.89%) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA)and 29(17.9%) in the anterior cerebral artery (ACA), and the remaining 43(26.5%)patients of vertebrobasilar artery (VBA); successful recanalization was achieved in 103 (63.58%)patients, including 11 (40.7%), 49(77.8%), 20(69.0%) and 23(53.3%), respectively, after intraarterial infusion of urokinase. Unsuccessful recanalization occurred in 59patients (36.42%). Followed up for 90 days, 90 (55.6%) patients obtained a good outcome; 72(44.44%) had poor prognosis including 20(12.35%) deaths. 8 patients associated with hemorrhage (4.9%) 73 with reperfusion injury (45.1%) and 5 arterial re-occlusion (3.1%). Based on statistic analysis, ICA trunk and VBA had low ratio of successful recanalization with poor clinic prognosis MCA and ACA possessed high ratio of successful recanalization and good clinic outcomes. There was a significant relationship between arterial recanalization rate and clinic prognosis (r=0.86).Conclusions Successful recanalization of cerebral occlusive artery by using intra-arterial thrombolysis could improve clinic prognosis in patients with acute ischemic stroke. Clinical prognosis has a significant relationship with both initial treatment time and arterial recanalization rate.