Baseline blood pressure but not early computed tomography changes predicts major hemorrhage after streptokinase in acute ischemic stroke

Abstract

Background and Purpose - Intracerebral hemorrhage is the most serious complication of thrombolytic therapy for stroke. We explored factors associated with this complication in the Australian Streptokinase Trial. Methods - The initial CT scans (≤4 hours after stroke) of 270 patients were reviewed retrospectively by an expert panel for early signs of ischemia and classified into the following 3 categories: no signs or ≤1/3 or >1/3 of the vascular territory. Hemorrhage on late CT scans was categorized as major or minor on the basis of location and mass effect. Stepwise, backward elimination, multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to identify risk factors for each hemorrhage category..