Antithrombotic therapy of acute stroke: thrombolytic agents.

Following the initial report of the clinical use of plasminogen activators (PAs) in cerebrovascular thrombosis in 1958, interest in the efficacy of this approach accelerated only when the need for acute intervention in stroke was recognized. The use of PAs in acute ischemic stroke is based on the observation that approximately 80-90% of focal cerebral ischemic events presenting as strokes within 8 hr of symptom onset are due to atherothrombotic and embolic occlusions.