Immediate Angiography May Improve Ischemic Stroke Treatment Outcomes

A study in Spain presened at the International Stroke Conference held online March 17-19, 2021 showed that foregoing CT scan and proceeding immediately to angiography reduced treatment time and improved outcomes for people having ischemic strokes. 

Between October 2018 and November 2020, 150 study participants were randomly assigned to receive standard care with CT vs immediate angiography on arrival. Those who received immediate angiography had testing within 19 minutes of arrival compared with 43 minutes for those who received standard care with CT at arrival. Time to treatment was 54 minutes faster for those who received immediate angiography. Individuals who had immediate angiography were also more likely to have a 1-point improvement on the modified Rankin scale 90 days after experiencing stroke. 

“Our study is the first clinical trial that shows the superiority of direct transfer to an angiography suite,” said lead study author Manuel Requena, PhD, a neurologist and neurointerventionalist fellow at Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona, Spain. “Our findings were close to what we expected, and we were surprised that they occurred so early in the study. We trust that they will be confirmed in ongoing multicenter international trials.”