Treating stroke within 90 minutes improves outcome significantly, researchers find

Patients are much less likely to have lasting disability after a stroke if they are treated much sooner than the period recommended in current official guidelines, concludes a new European study.

The study, published online in Stroke,1 the journal of the American Heart Association, found that patients who received thrombolysis within 90 minutes of experiencing mild or moderate stroke symptoms had a 37% better improvement rate than patients who were treated later (odds ratio 1.37 (95% confidence interval 1.11 to 1.7); P=0.004). These patients had little or no disability three months later in comparison with those who were treated between 90 and 270 minutes.

Each year in the United Kingdom around 150 000 people have …