Wake-up stroke within 3 hours of symptom awareness: imaging and clinical features compared to standard recombinant tissue plasminogen activator treated stroke.

BACKGROUND: Patients with wake-up stroke (WUS) are excluded from thrombolysis because of unknown time of symptom onset. Previous studies have reported similar stroke severity and early ischemic changes (EICs) in patients with WUS and stroke of known onset. These studies, however, included patients within a large timeframe to imaging or did not quantify EICs. The aim of our study was to quantify EICs of patients with WUS presenting within 3 hours of symptom recognition compared to standard 3-hours recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA)-treated patients and assess the extent of ischemic lesion and functional independence at follow-up.

METHODS: Patients were selected from our prospectively collected stroke database. Baseline and follow-up computed tomographic scans were graded with Alberta Stroke Program Early Computed Tomography Score (ASPECTS). Clinical outcome measures were modified Rankin Scale score, mortality, and symptomatic intracerebral hemorrhage.

RESULTS: Demographic features, risk factors, stroke severity, and baseline ASPECTS were similar in both groups. WUS and rt-PA-treated patients had similar tissue outcome (median ASPECTS 7.0 vs 7.5; P = .202). Functional outcome was more favorable in rt-PA-treated patients (61.6% vs 43.1%; odds ratio [OR] 2.12; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.05-4.28; P = .037). After adjusting for age, stroke severity, treatment, and EICs in less than one-third of middle cerebral artery territory, rt-PA and National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale scores remained the only significant predictors of outcome (OR 7.76; 95% CI 2.40-25.05; P = .001 and OR 0.74; 95% CI 0.67-0.82; P < .001, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS: Within 3 hours of symptom recognition, patients with WUS have EICs similar to rt-PA-treated patients. It is reasonable to expect that selected WUS patients might benefit from thrombolysis within 3 hours of symptom awareness.