Hourly blood pressure monitoring after intravenous tissue plasminogen activator for ischemic stroke: does everyone need it?
Abstract
Blood pressure (BP) control is considered essential in patients treated with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for ischemic stroke, and it is recommended that BP be monitored every 15 minutes to 1 hour for 24 hours in these patients. We postulated that patients whose BP is not initially elevated are unlikely to have elevated BP later and, therefore, may not need prolonged BP monitoring. We performed a retrospective chart review of patients treated with intravenous tPA for ischemic stroke over a 3-year period. Patients with incomplete records were excluded. Seventy-nine patients (35 male, age 68.8+/-14.3 years) were studied. Before tPA treatment, 16 patients (20%) had hypertension (systolic BP > or =185 or diastolic BP > or =110 mm Hg). All 16 patients had subsequent hypertension over the next 24 hours. Of the remaining 63, 27 patients (43%) had hypertension (systolic BP > or =180 or diastolic BP > or =105 mm Hg) within the first 6 hours. An additional 4 had minor transient systolic elevations (< or =182 mm Hg) after 6 hours that normalized without treatment. Neurological worsening, seen in 13 patients (17%), was not associated with the presence of hypertension (initial or subsequent). In patients receiving tPA for stroke, abse...Continue Reading
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