Safety of IV thrombolysis in acute ischemic stroke related to Chagas disease

Results: Among 240 patients treated with IV TPA, 174 had serologic testing for CD available. Of those, 24 patients (13.8%) had positive serology for CD. Patients with CD more frequently had heart failure (45.8% vs 14.7%; p < 0.01) and higher admission NIH Stroke Scale scores (19 [15–21] vs 13 [8–19]; p < 0.01) than patients with negative serology. The rates of SIH (4.2% vs 5.3%; odds ratio: 0.77; 95% confidence interval: 0.09–6.46; p = 0.99) and in-hospital death (16.7% vs 11.3%; odds ratio: 1.57; 95% confidence interval: 0.48–5.12; p = 0.50) were not higher among patients with CD.

Conclusion: In the largest published series of patients with CD-related stroke treated with IV TPA, we have observed that IV thrombolysis was safely performed and showed no increase of SIH. The diagnosis of CD should not preclude IV thrombolysis in these patients. Read more