Baseline functional status as a variable in personalized acute stroke care

Ischemic stroke remains a common and disabling disease with few proven therapies to improve functional outcome.1 Investigating the risks and benefits of those treatments, mainly IV thrombolysis (IVT) and mechanical thrombectomy, must occur under the constraints of a time-limited window of opportunity.2 Clinicians making time-sensitive therapeutic decisions need data that define best practices based on relevant individual characteristics such as preexisting level of disability.