Background: Time is critical in acute ischemic stroke, where each minute of delay worsens outcomes. Mobile Stroke Treatment Units (MSUs) enable prehospital imaging and treatment, potentially reducing workflow times compared with conventional telestroke assessments at spoke medical centers. Objective: To assess whether MSUs provide faster acute stroke care than the conventional telestroke model. Methods: We retrospectively compared patients with acute ischemic stroke managed by the MSU versus telestroke spoke sites between January-August 2025. Primary outcomes included door-to-needle time (DTN), door-to-interventional room time (DTI), and door-to-CT (DTCT) head scan time. Stats used for comparison included Mann-Whitney U test. Results: A total of 46 patients (MSU: 28, Telestroke 18) were analyzed. Table 1 shows patient demographics with MSU reporting increased female treatment and 22% higher likelihood of treating patients within the golden hour window. Table 2 shows stroke metric comparisons. Notably, times were significantly faster for MSU patients with DTCT (7 mins MSU, 12 mins Telestroke; p=0.007), DTN (19 mins, 60.5 min; p<0.001) and DTI (85 mins, 108 mins; p=0.011). Conclusion: MSUs substantially reduce acute stroke treatment times compared to conventional telestroke hub and spoke care models improving the likelihood of golden hour reperfusion therapy. These findings support the broader implementation of MSUs to optimize acute ischemic stroke management.
Seifer et al. (Thu,) studied this question.