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Acute Ischaemic Stroke in Patients Aged 80 Years and Older

Focus on the Tolerability of Thrombolytic Agents

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Abstract

Ischaemic stroke is a devastating disease in the elderly with 30–50% 90-day mortality. Thrombolysis for stroke is potentially life saving and disability sparing in this group but the number of elderly patients studied in clinical trials, particularly those aged ≥80 years, has been small. Indeed, <50 patients aged >80 years have been treated in clinical thrombolytic trials of ischaemic stroke. However, there is no evidence of a differential treatment effect by age. Multiple cohort studies have suggested that the risk of symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage among octogenarians is no different from that in younger patients. Thrombolysis can be safely offered to acute ischaemic stroke patients aged ≥80 years, although robust data from randomized clinical trials are relatively scarce.

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Article 10 October 2019

Bruce C. V. Campbell, Deidre A. De Silva, … Geoffrey A. Donnan

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Acknowledgements

Dr Hill has been funded by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Alberta and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. Dr Hill has received honoraria from Hoffmann-LaRoche Canada for continuing medical education but the authors otherwise have no conflicts of interest directly relevant to the content of this review.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Calgary Stroke Program, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Calgary, Foothills Hospital, Room 1162, 1403 29th Street NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 2T9, Canada

    Alexandre Y. Poppe &  Michael D. Hill

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  1. Alexandre Y. Poppe
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  2. Michael D. Hill
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Correspondence to Michael D. Hill.

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Poppe, A.Y., Hill, M.D. Acute Ischaemic Stroke in Patients Aged 80 Years and Older. Drugs Aging 25, 95–103 (2008). https://doi.org/10.2165/00002512-200825020-00002

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