Clinical: Journals Watch - Stroke, BP and antidepressants.(briefs)(Report)

Too busy to read the journals? Let Dr Tillmann Jacobi bring you up to date with the latest research.

- Predicting haemorrhagic stroke with the SICH score

Stroke 2012 doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.111.644815

IV thrombolysis for the treatment of ischaemic strokes can be effective but bears the risk of serious symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage (SICH).

The aim of this study was to develop a practical clinical score to predict the potential risk for the individual patient. An analysis of data from 31,627 patients on the International Stroke Thrombolysis Register who had been treated with IV alteplase revealed an overall rate of SICH of 1.8%.

Nine independent contributing risk factors were identified, including baseline National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale, serum glucose, systolic BP, age, body weight, stroke onset to treatment time, aspirin or combined aspirin and clopidogrel, and history of hypertension. These were integrated into a scoring tool for …