NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Very elderly patients, perhaps up to 100 years old, with acute ischemic stroke benefit from timely thrombolytic therapy to the same degree as younger patients, a new study shows.

Dr. Kennedy R. Lees at the University of Glasgow, UK, and colleagues examined the influence of age on outcomes of thrombolysis in stroke using data from the Virtual International Stroke Trials Archive (VISTA), and report the findings in the December issue of Stroke.

The study compared the distribution of modified Rankin scores in 1585 ischemic stroke patients after thrombolysis with recombinant tPA (alteplase) compared with 4232 patients who did not undergo thrombolysis.

The researchers looked at outcomes in patients older or younger than 80, and then in each age decile. One-fifth of the cohort (20.5%) was older than 80 years, with a mean age of 85.1 years.

Across the whole cohort, thrombolysis led to a better subsequent distribution of modified Rankin scores (odds ratio 1.39; p<0.0001).