Tori Hysko
Orlando Health Hospital, USA
Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Neuro Neurophy
Alteplase is a tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) that has been shown to be the most accessible and effective medical treatment for ischemic stroke with Class I level A evidence in favor of its use.1 However, its use in treatment of mild stroke remains controversial. We hypothesize that patients in the Orlando Health stoke database with a low NIHSS score (National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale; NIHSS < 5), who otherwise meet criteria, are not always treated with Alteplase.2,3 Our goal is to examine the variability of physician treatment and outcomes in mild stroke patients and to better understand why all physicians are not using tPA to treat mild stroke patients, despite its proven effectiveness4,5,7. We speculate the wide variability in treatment of mild strokes is due to the conflicting data seen in the stroke literature, ambiguity of the clinical guidelines, lack of understanding of the risk vs. benefit ratio in this population.6 If our hypothesis is correct, our results will help to educate the Orlando Health medical community on how to more effectively treat mild stroke patients. Our results will help guide future research efforts to revamp current stroke guidelines, which could ultimately improve patientâ??s functional outcomes and decrease the healthcare cost of mild strokes nationwide.
Tori Hysko is a current second year student at the University of Central Florida Medical School, hoping match into a neurology residency. Prior, she completed her Masters in biomedical science at the University of South Florida and her undergraduate degree, with a major in neuroscience, at Wellesley College
E-mail: thysko@knights.ucf.edu
