Cerebral Aneurysms May Not Complicate Stroke Thrombolysis

Cerebral Aneurysms May Not Complicate Stroke Thrombolysis
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
By: Eleanor McDermid

Eleanor McDermid, medwirenews

The presence of an unruptured cerebral aneurysm does not appear to increase patients' risk for intracranial hemorrhage on receipt of intravenous (IV) tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) to treat acute stroke, say U.S. researchers.

"The presence of an unruptured cerebral aneurysm is considered by many an exclusion criterion for the administration of IV tPA, although it is unclear whether IV thrombolysis increases the likelihood of aneurysm rupture," says Nancy Edwards (University of California San Francisco) and team.

They add that "the exclusion of this particular patient population is not trivial," with nearly one in 10 patients in their study found to have an unruptured aneurysm.