Multidisciplinary protocol for rapid head computed tomography turnaround time in acute stroke patients

Eric M. Bershad, Chethan P.Venkatasubba Rao, Kevin Dat Vuong, Janine Mazabob, Gerard Brown, Suzan L. Styron, Thuy Nguyen, Elizabeth Delledera, Stelios M. Smirnakis, Christos Lazaridis, Alexandros L. Georgiadis, Marilyn Mokracek, Timothy J. Seipel, John J. Nisbet, Visveshwar Baskaran, Andrew H. Chang, Patrick Stewart, Jose I. Suarez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

Background The door-to-computed tomography (CT) head reporting time is an essential step to determining eligibility for thrombolysis in acute stroke patients, but the specific components of the process have not been reported in detail. Methods We performed a retrospective cross-sectional analysis of the prospectively collected Get-With-The-Guidelines database in our comprehensive stroke center to evaluate the effect of a structured multidisciplinary protocol on head CT times in acute stroke patients under consideration for thrombolysis. Results The median CT turnaround time in the first 6-month period was 27 (interquartile range [IQR], 27) and decreased in all subsequent periods after implementation of a formal protocol to 18 (IQR, 12; range, 17-20 minutes; P <.0001 for all pairwise comparisons). The median CT turnaround time was 18 (IQR, 12) versus 20 (IQR, 14) minutes for patients with admission diagnosis of stroke (n = 1123) versus nonstroke (n = 685; P <.0001), respectively. Conclusions A structured multidisciplinary protocol for obtaining acute stroke protocol head CT scan was associated with reduced CT turnaround time over the study period. Prospective studies should be done to determine if implementation in other stroke centers confirms the effectiveness of our protocol.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1256-1261
Number of pages6
JournalJournal of Stroke and Cerebrovascular Diseases
Volume24
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 1 2015
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Acute stroke
  • computed tomography
  • thrombolysis
  • turnaround time

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Surgery
  • Rehabilitation
  • Clinical Neurology
  • Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine

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