To TPA or not to TPA?

That is the question.




Tissue Plasminogen Activator or more commonly TPA is a genetically- engineered blood clot dissolver that was first used to prevent heart damage after a heart attack since the late 1980s and through the years have been one of the mainstays in the treatment of Stroke because of its ability to reduce the long- term disability that usually result from the disease.

TPA is usually given within three hours of a Stroke which is usually known in legal parlance as the “window- period” or “golden hour” to be effective and beyond that there‘s the clear and present danger of bleeding in the brain which is the TPA’s worst complication .

However recent findings by researchers and scientists in the medical field are now reconsidering that old belief and are now concluding that it is still safe to give TPA beyond the so- called “three- hour” window period.


Here's the news from the Associated Press- Study: Extending time of stroke drug treatment OK



And here's the article of the study from the New England Journal of Medicine - Thrombolysis with Alteplase 3 to 4.5 Hours after Acute Ischemic Stroke