Although recent advances have been made in the treatment of acute stroke, patients often arrive at the hospital too late to receive the maximum benefit from these new therapies. This study by HIP Investigator Dr. Maureen Smith aimed to investigate characteristics that influence the time from symptom onset to hospital arrival (delay time) for patients with acute stroke.
The study reviewed medical records from Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan hospitals of patients 30 to 79 years of age who were hospitalized with acute stroke from 1991 to 1993. They found that patients with approximated delay times tended to have longer delays and less than 40% of these patients arrived within 24 hours of symptom onset. Some characteristics associated with longer delay included Asian/Pacific Islander ethnicity, dependence in any activities of daily living before stroke, and several symptoms at stroke onset.
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