Recent Myocardial Infarction is Associated With Increased Risk in Older Adults With Acute Ischemic Stroke Receiving Thrombolytic Therapy

Background: Intravenous recombinant tissue-type plasminogen activator (rtPA) remains the only medical therapy to improve outcomes for acute ischemic stroke (AIS), but the safety of rtPA in AIS patients with a history of recent myocardial infarction (MI) remains controversial. Methods and Results: We sought to determine whether the presence of recent MI would alter the risk of mortality and rtPA-related complications. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to compare in-hospital outcomes between rtPA-treated AIS patients with recent MI within 3 months and those with no history of MI from the Get With The Guidelines-Stroke hospitals between February 2009 and December 2015. Among 40 396 AIS patients aged ≥65 years treated with rtPA, 241 (0.6%) had recent MI, of which 19.5% were ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction. Patients with recent MI had more severe stroke than those without (median National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale [interquartile range]: 13.0 [7.0–20.0] versus 11.0 [6.0–18.0]). Recent MI was associated with an increased risk of mortality compared with no history of MI (17.4% versus 9.0%; adjusted odds ratio 1.60 [95% CI, 1.10–2.33]; P=0.014), but no statistically significant differences in rtPA-related complications (13.5% versus 9.4%; adjusted odds ratio 1.28 [0.88–1.86]; P=0.19). Recent ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction was associated with higher risk of death and rtPA-related complications, but non–ST-segment–elevation myocardial infarction was not. Conclusions: Among older AIS patients treated with rtPA, recent MI was associated with an increased risk of in-hospital mortality. Further investigations are necessary to determine whether the benefit of rtPA outweighs its risk among AIS patients with recent MI.