Thrombolytic therapy in acute ischemic stroke patients with cardiac thrombus

The authors describe the outcome of five patients with a cardiac thrombus s elected among 183 patients with stroke (2.7%) who were given IV tissue plas minogen activator (tPA). No early systemic or cerebral embolism occurred. T wo patients made a complete recovery at 3 months. Two patients had a modera te outcome. One patient had late recurrent cerebral embolism and died. Thes e data suggest that the presence of a cardiac thrombus is not associated wi th a high risk of recurrent embolism in patients with stroke who are given IV tPA.