Objective

To evaluate whether shorter door-to-needle times (DNT) with intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) for acute ischemic stroke are associated with improved 1-year outcomes in Chinese patients.

Methods

From August to September 2019, all first-ever ischemic stroke patients who were treated with intravenous tPA within 4.5 h of the time they were last known to be well from 232 hospitals in China were included. Patients were divided into four groups according to DNT time (≤ 45 min; 45–60 min; 60–90 min; > 90 min). All discharged patients would receive a telephone follow-up at 12-month after admission. Death and disability events were recorded.

Results

Finally, 2370 patients were analyzed. The median age was 65 years, 66.6% were male, and 2.4% were of ethnic minorities. In the 1-year follow-up, 211 patients died (8.9%; 95%CI: 7.8–10.0%). The patients (53.1%) had DNT times of longer than 45 min, compared with those treated within 45 min, did not have significantly higher 1-year mortality (8.9% vs 8.9% [absolute difference, 0.03% {95% CI, − 0.05% to − 0.10%}, odd ratio {OR}, 1.00 {95% CI, 0.75 to 1.33}]). In addition, 385 patients (16.2%; 14.8–17.3%) out of those survivors had disability events. The patients had DNT times of longer than 45 min, compared with those treated within 45 min, did not have significantly higher 1-year disability rate (18.9% vs 16.7% [absolute difference, 1.9% {95% CI, 1.1% to 3.0%}, odd ratio {OR}, 1.22 {95% CI, 0.89 to 1.43}]).

Conclusions

The results did not show that shorter DNT for tPA administration was significantly associated with better 1-year outcomes.